Survivors of Harmony
by chillbook1
Summary: What if Silver Rift died during the first war, instead of going into his three year coma? What if Fluttershy was forced to lead the Defenders of Harmony against Sombra, Discord, Chrysalis, and Sunset Shimmer all on her own? Told through the digital diaries of Pinkie, Rarity and others, this is the story of the war like you've never seen before.
1. Pinkie's Diary: Entry 1

**Author's Note: This story is a sort of "what-if?" scenario. This does not effect what happened in the actual Defenders of Harmony series, rather, this is just something fun I wanted to do. Please, read and review if you enjoyed or have ideas on how I can improve. Thanks in advance. Farewell!**

* * *

NAME: Pinkamena Diane Pie

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Pinkie Pie

AGE: 20 years

DIARY ENTRY: #1

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

STATUS: Healthy, minor injury

* * *

Hello? Is this thingy working? Yup, sure is! I can see my thoughts appearing on the digital diary. Twilight was right! It's super easy to use, all I have to do is nothing. Wait, you probably have no clue what I'm talking about. What else is new? I'll explain. I'm Pinkie Pie and I love sugar and cakes and parties and seeing my friends smile. I'm also a soldier in a war that decides the fate of two different worlds. Our leader was this guy named Silver Rift but he… he's not with us anymore. Now Fluttershy is taking charge. She's done well so far, but she has gone a little crazy-wazy. Anyway, I'm talking to you now through a digital diary that my friend Twilight made. She put a potato chip inside my head that listens to my thoughts and records them for me.

"Not a potato chip, Pinkie!" she called from the next room over. "A computer chip!"

The chip helps Twilight keep track of us, as well as making a journal for prosperity and in case we die. She says that's not why, but I know she's lying. There's a good chance that we're going to die out here, and Twilight is just making sure that if we do, the rest of us will be fine and have the knowledge to continue.

"Nopony is going to die!" she called.

"I know!" I called back. She was lying, though. Somepony already died. Silver was dead, and that made War very, very, very upset. Just thinking of War made me a little sad. After he left the group, he was all I could think about. If I could ever see him again, just once, I would… I'm not sure what I would do, but it would involve sexy panties, frosting, and a lot of creativity.

"Focus, Pinkie!" shouted Twilight uncomfortably. "This is supposed to be for data to help us, not for… whatever that was! You didn't even start off with what I told you!"

Twilight could see what I thought all day, every day. I'm not quite sure how I felt about that. She promised me that it was strictly for data collection and that she wouldn't look through my memories without permission, but it still felt uncomfortable.

"I'm still not hearing you say it!"

"Why do I have to?" I asked.

"How else am I going to organize the entries? This is Pinkie's diary entry 1, so you have to say it at the beginning!"

"Diary entry #1." I said.

"Everypony get off their asses and report to the training room!" shouted Fluttershy. Her voice echoed through the house, shaking the walls thanks to Conjure's magical PA system. I got off of my bed and grabbed my crutches. I begrudgingly began to hobble my way downstairs and to the training room. The rest of my friends were surrounding the table by the time I got there. I was the last one to get there, which didn't surprise me. After all, nopony else had a broken tibia. That's what Twilight called it, but Applejack said it was just a fancy way to say "leg bone".

"Howdy, Pinkie." said Aj, adjusting her hat. "It's been a while since Ah've seen ya."

"Yeah, where've you been?" asked Rainbow. Two of my oldest friends who, even though they seem tough, are always caring about me.

"Just been resting my legs. What's going on?"

"Glad somepony other than me actually gives a damn that I might be giving out some life-saving instructions." said Fluttershy. "You idiots seem to have forgotten that this is war, not a meet-and-greet mixer. Save the small talk for when the enemy is dead."

Fluttershy was a kind, soft, and delicate soul. Most of the time. Since she started leading, though, she's been… How do I say this nicely? She's been sorta… itchy-twitchy, rhymes with witchy, if you know what I mean.

"Pinkie, if you're gonna call me a bitch, at least have the lady-balls to say it to my face." said our leader, raising a cellphone and placing it on the table. "I have all the diaries streamed directly here to this phone. Every dirty, sneaky thought you think will be here. It's going to be fun to read through these. Can't wait to look at Dashie's, since she's so amazing."

"Um… Flutters?" asked Rainbow Dash. Her face was really red, which was weird because it was normally really blue. "Only you and Twilight can read our diary entries, right?"

"No shit. Why?"

"It's just that the chips record everything we think, even in our dreams. I've been having some dreams about some people that I don't necessarily want them to know about."

"Who has you wet?" asked Fluttershy. If it was anypony else, we probably would've laughed, but we've been through too much together.

"It's not really any of your business. I just think I have the right to at least a little privacy." said Rainbow Dash, trying her hardest not to look at Applejack. I wonder why.

"It really is my business, so just spill it. Who do you have the hots for?" pressed Fluttershy.

"Well, it damn sure ain't you." said Conjure, walking into the room. I almost forgot about Conjure. He was a great guy, a really cool friend. We talked the entire time he was helping Twilight saw open my skull and place a small bit of plastic on top of my brain!

"You're not supposed to be out of your room. I suggest you get back there before I put you in the ground, right next to Silver." said Fluttershy angrily.

"Shove off. I'm allowed to leave my own bedroom. I just came down for something to eat and Twi hid all the yogurt down here."

"Hey!" I said to Twilight. "You said there wasn't any yogurt!"

"You were rubbing it into your armpits." said Twilight. "What did you want me to do?"

"Fluttershy, darling, I was in the middle of a new armor design, so if we could make this snappy." said Rarity, stroking her mane absentmindedly. This battle was affecting her pretty badly. Fluttershy made it a rule that she couldn't go out for makeup or fabric, plus Twilight couldn't make more for her because something about equivalent exchange and giving to get.

"I run this, Rarity, so I will take as much time as I damn well please." said Fluttershy. "I only called you down here to tell you that that miserable shit got himself captured."

"Say again?" said Conjure. "You mean to tell me Robert got captured?"

"Did I stutter, asshole? Yeah, he got himself taken."

My world cracked around that sentence. War was captured by the enemy and was probably being beaten for answers he didn't have and information he didn't know. They wouldn't get anything out of him, even if he did know. War was the bravest, strongest, hottest, most loyal, hottest guy I knew. Oh my Celestia, he was gorgeous! Wait, what was I talking about? Sometimes the chip made me lose focus, something I already had a problem with. My confusion must've been obvious, because Conjure came to my rescue.

"Fluttershy was just about to tell us to suit up so that we can nab Robert." said Conjure.

"Like hell I was." said Fluttershy. "I was just letting you know so that you can prepare for his death. We're not going after that asshole. I told him that the moment he left he would stop being my problem."

"Fine. If he's not your problem, then he'll be mine." I said. "I'll go save him."

"On whose authority? Definitely not mine. You're staying right here until your leg heals up. And then you're going to wait until your arms heal."

"My arms are fine."

"Not for long. Remember? You still have three more Groundings. I'm tired of breaking your legs, so I'm going go for your arms for a while."

"That won't stop me." I said, hobbling for the weapon rack. "I don't need my arms or my legs to save War."

"Then how are you going to get there?" asked Twilight.

"I'll… I don't know, but I'll get there." I said, pulling my knife from the wall. I strapped it to my hip and limped over to my gun.

"You're going to die out there, Pinkie." said Rainbow.

"I don't care."

"That don't make a lick of sense." said Applejack. "Pinkie, take a seat. We can talk bout this."

"What's there to talk about? I'm going to save War and that's that."

"Pinkie, this is silly." said Rarity. "Please, don't go! I don't know what I would do if I lost you, darling. We'd all be lost without you."

"I'm not going to get lost, silly-filly. The potato chip has a GPS in it, so you'll always know where I am."

"Fluttershy, she's going to go and there's not much we can do about it." said Twilight. "At least let me heal her. She's going to die if she goes out like this."

Fluttershy got to her hooves and walked over to me. I was always sort of short and pudgy, while Fluttershy was taller and curvier. Just like always, she towered over me by almost a foot. Normally, it was just a height difference, but now she was almost intimidating. Almost. Fluttershy grabbed my leg roughly, sending a spike of pain up my leg.

"Hm. Fix her up, Twi." she said. "When you get back, I'm breaking it again, and then your arms to boot."

"I'll take it." I said.

"I'm going with her." said Conjure. "Since we're the only two who give half a damn about War, I think we would work well together."

"You're not allowed out of your room, dumbass." growled Fluttershy. She was getting angrier and angrier. "Go back upstairs before I lose my patience."

"I wasn't asking you. I was telling you. I'm going to save my brother. Don't try and stop me."

"Fine! I hope you die out there! You have ten minutes to get ready before I cancel your mission. Then you have 3 hours to get back. It's noon now, so if I see you at 3:01, I'm going to assume you're a changeling in disguise. I shoot changelings. Hurry up!"

I threw my crutches to the ground and stepped over to the rack that held our skin-tight Chameleon Armor suits. I ignored the pain in my leg and slipped into my armor, not a grunt, gasp, or groan escaping me.

"Let's go." I said. "No time to waste."


	2. Pinkie's Diary: Entry 2

NAME: Pinkamena Diane Pie

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Pinkie Pie

AGE: 20 years

DIARY ENTRY: #2

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

STATUS: Healthy

* * *

I released Conjure from my super-tight hug, the teleportation being finished. We had 3 hours to find War, and he could be anywhere on this great, big planet called Earth. Lucky for us, Conjure had his magic back, and he was one of the bestest, most powerfulest unicorns that ever lived. I took a second to look around, and to try out my new leg bone. We were on a grassy hill, far out in the middle of nowhere. It was a nice change from the typical urban environment I'd gotten used to. Conjure looked around, his horn surrounded by green light, trying to get a gather of where we were.

"So, Conjure." I said. "I didn't know you and War were related."

"We're not. Not really." he replied. "My mom adopted him when he was five and I was three."

"Oh! So in the future, you're going to be my adoptive brother-in-law!"

"You think? What if I told you that Rob never liked commitment?"

"What if I told you he didn't have a choice?" I said with a smirk.

"So your plan is to force Robert into marriage?" said Conjure. "That is ridiculous, determined, and a little bit scary. I'd be shocked if he said no. You seem to have all this planned out, so what could go wrong?"

"My plan is perfect. War is going to propose to me at sunset with the ring that he hid in my champagne glass! It's gonna totally surprise me and there's gonna be tears of joy flowing from my face as I shout 'yes!' Then, we're gonna have a daughter named Storm who's gonna be bestest friends with the two daughters you and Twilight are gonna have, me and War are gonna get old and Storm's gonna take over Sugar Cube Corner!"

"Wait, what? You think… Me and Twilight? Yeah, right. That's not happening."

"Deny it all you want, it's the truth!"

"I'm not denying that it would be great, I'm denying my chances. Twilight is a princess."

"Actually, she's not." I said. "She's just Princess Celestia's student."

"In any case, she could have anyone she wants." he said, stopping in a certain spot. He began to drag his hoof in a circle, carving into the dirt. "Why would she pick me?"

"Cause you're fantastic, and Twilight already has, like, the biggest crush on you. You could probably ask her to marry you today and she'd say yes."

"You're crazy."

"Coming from the guy who's drawing circles in the ground when we're supposed to be searching for his brother."

"I am searching for him." he said. "He's beneath us. This hill is hollow, mostly anyway. There's some sort of bunker beneath us, and the circle I just marked is the weakest point. A nice explosion should get us in."

I reached into my mane, feeling around for my explosives. Bubblegum, baby carrots, bongo drums… It took me a few seconds, but I found the thing I was looking for: my bazooka. I pulled the long, pink cylinder from my mane, tossed it to Conjure, and reached back in. When I retrieved a rocket for it, I took my Party Cannon back, loaded it, and aimed right at the circle.

"Weak spot, right?" I asked. Conjure just nodded and backed away. I braced myself and pulled the trigger. The rocket flew from my Cannon, smashing into the grass with an earth-shattering, earth-spewing, earth-shaking KABOOM! the resulting crater wasn't deep, only a couple feet or so. I hopped down, stumbling forward slightly. My leg wasn't broken anymore, but I wouldn't call it fully-healed. Before me was a long, empty hallway, clearly carved and re-walled by the enemy. Steel coated the wall, as opposed to the dirt and worms that should be there. At the end of the hall was a huge metal door, wide enough to fit at least the entire team, if they were all might've even been room for Silver. I pulled another rocket from my mane, looked at Conjure for confirmation, then fired another explosion-to-be at the door. The metal caved in and melted from the sheer force of my rocket. I rushed in, catching a mouthful of smoke. It stung my eyes, my nose, and my throat. Conjure jumped in after me, his horn glowing, to remove the smoke. It thinned out, allowing me to breathe. In the middle of the room was War, in his human form and completely naked, kneeling over a changeling and punching him in the face repeatedly. Wow. Good to know what I'm getting myself into.

"Please put some clothes on." said Conjure, causing War to look up.

"Please don't." I said with a smile. Conjure through War a suit of Chameleon Armor, smart clothing that turned into steel during a fight. War slipped into it, much to my displeasure.

"It's good to see you guys." said War, his deep, growling voice sending chills down my spine. I loved it. "It's been, what, a year? Two?"

"About three, actually." said Conjure. "What have you been up to?"

"You know, a little of this, a little of that." laughed my unwitting future-husband. "Killed some changelings, destroyed a base or two. Hey, did you hear about the water tower explosion?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"That was me, baby. Killed 500 of those bastards. Thanks for the escape, but I have to go."

"You're coming with us." I said.

"No, I'm not. I can't even think about Fluttershy without breaking something. You realise one of my best friends are dead because of her, right?"

"Pah." snorted Conjure, almost like he knew something that we didn't.

"You got something to say?" asked War.

"No, but I do have something to show you."

"Not interested."

"It's about Chris."

"I'm suddenly interested." said War. He looked around confusedly, searching for something. "You guys haven't seen my hammer, have you?"

"No, and we don't have time. Twilight gave me my magic back, but it fades in and out. This teleport needs to happen now."

"Not before Pinkie explains what that scar across her forehead is about."

"Oh, this?" I said, pointing to the mark across my forehead. "It's from the potato chip."

"What kind of snacks is that bitch giving you?"

"She means a computer chip." said Conjure, rolling his eyes. "Twilight was supposed to heal the scars, but she's been busy. I'll explain to you when we get back to base. If you're coming, that is."

"Fine." said War, grabbing Conjure's wrist. "Let's go"

I grabbed Conjure and War in a hug and felt the weird green magic surround me. We vanished from the base in a pop of light, appearing in the training room of our own base. The only one there was Fluttershy, who peered at us angrily. She sat on the war table and crossed her arms.

"Pinkie, I said you could find your boyfriend, not adopt a stray." she said. "Although there's not much difference."

"You know, I almost missed you." said War. "Almost being a stretch. I didn't come here for you, bitch. I came here to-"

"Come pay his respects to Chris." said Conjure. "He never said any last words to him, and now he finally got his thoughts together. I'm just gonna get him all suited up then I'm going to bring him to the burial ground."

Conjure grabbed War's wrist, who grabbed my hand, and led us through up the stairs to the ground floor. As we left, I could hear Fluttershy mutter something under her breath. I'm pretty sure she said "bullshit".

"Why did you drag me here?" asked War, following Conjure up another set of stairs, this one to the floor that had our bedrooms.

"Chris is alive." said Conjure, grabbing at the ceiling. Both me and War were shocked, both at that and at the staircase that had melted from the ceiling.

"He's what?" asked War.

"Alive. He hasn't been dead, he's been asleep. In a coma, but alive. I'm confident that I can wake him up. I just need your help."

"I like this plan. If we can get Chris back, maybe we can get Fluttershy to kindly remove her panties from up her ass."

"Be nice!" I said, giggling a little. Conjure brought us up to a secret attic that I didn't know existed. There was a single door on the huge floor, a door that I couldn't seem to keep my eyes on. Every time I looked at it, my eyes drifted away. I would've chalked it up to my chip, but War was having the same problem.

"Non-focus field. It makes it hard for you to pay attention on whatever it's casted on." said Conjure. He grabbed the doorknob and opened wide. A wall of stink smacked me in the face, a putrid, disgusting stench that made my eyes water and my nose burn. In the room was a single bed, a few cabinets, a sink and a nightstand. On the bed was a dead body, a corpse that was there for a very long time. Most of his flesh had decomposed completely, in some parts all the way down to the bone. There were a few patches of his black coat left, and his bright white mane was longer than he normally kept it, and it darkened to black near to the roots. Flies buzzed all around Silver's body, laying their eggs in his rotting body. Conjure took a look and nearly screamed in terror.

"No! What happened?" gasped Conjure, backpedalling out of the room.

"What the hell?" said War quietly. "What am I looking at?"

"Chris he… but that's impossible! That doesn't make sense!" War grabbed Conjure by the collar and threw him against the wall angrily.

"Calm down!" I squealed, grabbing his shoulder. War pushed me off without much effort, which was saying something. I'm sort of a big girl, and he shrugged me off like a fly.

"You gave me hope and then took it away! If you brought me here just to show me the decomposing corpse of my best friend, I might just fucking kill you."

"War, I swear to God, Allah, Brahman, and any other god you may believe in, he was fine this morning. I wouldn't joke like that! I know how much Chris means to you!"

"Then why did you bring me here?!" bellowed War.

"I thought you could help. I don't get it, I really don't. I did his vitals a few hours ago and he had brain activity for the first time in years. I was confident that he could wake up."

War reared his fist back and swung at Conjure's face. Time slowed down and I sprung into action. I slipped in front of Conjure and felt War's big, heavy fist connect with my nose, shattering the bone and spurting blood onto my chest. I pushed War back and shielded Conjure with my arms.

"Pinkie, are you nuts?" asked War, wiping the blood from his fist. "I could've hurt you."

"You sorta did." I said, massaging my shattered nose bone. It didn't help. Actually, it made it hurt like hell, even more than it already did. "It doesn't matter. Leave Conjure alone."

"Pinkie, please move the hell out of my way. I have to punch this asshole in the face."

"No! You can't! He made a mistake, and you should forgive him!"

"This is how I forgive people. I punch them in the face, and if they survive, I forgive them."

"Fine." said Conjure, pushing me out of the way. "If this is what it takes to be forgiven, then by all means. Hit me as hard as you can. I'll take it. Hit me with your best shot!"

War pushed Conjure against the wall with his left hand. He brought his fist back as far as he could, waiting for Conjure to protest. He just stood there to take the beating. War caught a glimpse of my disappointed face and released his brother from the wall.

"Don't pull some shit like that again." he said. "It's been great seeing you guys again, but I have to go."

"No! You can't leave!" I said.

"Explain to me in 10 words why I can't."

"Earth needs you, Equestria needs you, and I need you."

"I need you." he mumbled, counting on his fingers. "Damn. 10 words exactly. Fine, can't deny my future wife. I'll stay."

"Future wife?" asked Conjure. "You mean you're on board with this?"

"Duh. How could I say no to someone as hot as Pinkie?"

"Wait, let me check something. How many kids do you want?" I asked.

"Just one girl, named Storm." he answered.

"Perfect!" I jumped into his arms and kissed him roughly on the lips. We swapped spit for almost a minute before Conjure finally got uncomfortable enough to interrupt.

"Can we not do this right now?" he asked. "Isn't your nose broken?"

"Sure is. My first hickey!" I squealed.

"A broken nose is not a hickey!"

"It's actually more along the lines of a piece of evidence in a domestic violence case." said War. For some reason, hearing the word "violence" reminded me of Fluttershy, which reminded that she could read through our diaries.

"Um… Guys?" I said. "Fluttershy just read all of this."

"Twilight, report to the infirmary." said Fluttershy over the PA. "Get a chip ready. And a couple of casts while you're at it. Something tells me that we're going to have a few extra broken limbs."


	3. Pinkie's Diary: Entry 3

NAME: Pinkamena Diane Pie

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Pinkie Pie

AGE: 20 years

DIARY ENTRY: #3

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

STATUS: Healthy

* * *

When Conjure and Twilight brought War in for surgery, Fluttershy called the rest of us down to the training room. We reported in as fast as we could, eager to get this over with. Everypony knew that it was just a drill, or a lecture, or news. Nothing really exciting. We hadn't done anything big since Sunset Shimmer.

"Suit up, everypony." said Fluttershy, handing out our weapons. "We're going on a mission."

"What kind of mission?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"An important one."

"Isn't that what she said about the 'mission' to go get new socks?" I whispered to Applejack.

"Shut up." commanded Fluttershy. What was it that Conjure called her? Oh, I remember! Commandoshy. Makes sense, cause she's always giving out orders and commands.

"Please don't keep us in suspense, darling." said Rarity. "What exactly are we doing?"

"We're taking down Discord."

"Are you insane?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"That's just dangerous, sugarcube." said Applejack. "Do ya really think we can take out somepony as powerful as Discord?"

"We don't have a choice. If we take out Discord, we take out a big weapon of the enemy's." explained Fluttershy. "We have to drop them down somehow. and Discord is the only option. Chrysalis has so many bodyguards that we won't be able to touch her, and I've seen Sombra shrug off bullets. Literally, he got shot and the bullets hit him, but nothing happened. We're not taking him down until Twilight discovers some really strong magic."

"But how in all of Equestria are we supposed to find him?" asked Rainbow. "He's… well, he's Discord! He's not exactly predictable."

"More predictable than you might think. We can predict that he won't do something we can predict."

"Ah beg yer pardon?" said Applejack. She wasn't the only one confused.

"What I mean is that the only thing we can count on is him causing chaos. It's been really peaceful lately, and I don't think Discord will be able to control himself if there's some sort of chaos or disharmony."

"I get it!" I giggled. "_We_ have to be Discord, and Discord has to be us and come find himself so that he can stop us from being him and making chaos, but since he's Discord, he's just gonna make more chaos! That's when we get the drop on him!"

"Holy shit, did that make sense?" asked Rainbow.

"Um… Yeah." said Fluttershy. "That's pretty much the plan. We start some chaos, Discord finds it and finishes it, then we finish him. Good work, Pinkie."

"Too bad War has to have his chip put in. He would love this."

"Yeah, well. About the only thing he's good for is making a mess. Here's the plan: Aj, you're headed downtown. Your objective is basically to blow shit up. Dash, I want you to be a few blocks away, also blowing shit up. Rarity, you should be somewhere near the train stations, blowing shit up. It's very simple. Try not to kill anyone. Just make it look like you might. Pinkie, you are-"

"Gonna blow shit up!" I cried with excitement. "Blowing shit up" was one of my favorite things to do.

"No. You're with me. We're going to be waiting, and then we're going to kill Discord as soon as we see him." said Fluttershy. "We're going to try to stay quiet, so there will be no blowing shit up for you."

"Aww!"

"Shut up. I want everypony ready to go in five minutes. Pack explosives, pack extra ammo, and make sure you have your phones. Every time you have a minute to breathe, I want you to comb through your diaries and make sure you didn't miss anything. I've seen all of you do it. You'll see something, but not process that you saw it. One of the main reasons the diaries exist are for data, so use it. Dismissed."

I slipped back into my Chameleon Armor and attached my knife and assault rifle to my hip. My gun was special and magic, because it shot mini-explosions. I guess I would be blowing shit up today. Fluttershy strapped her cutlass to her left hip and Celestial, Silver's shortsword, to her right. Try saying that three times fast. Celestial, Silver's shortsword, Celestial, Silver's shortsword, Celestial, Silver's shortsword! That's hard! Wait, what was I saying?"

"We're about to leave, Pinkie." said Fluttershy, bringing me back to reality. "Try to pay more attention. I don't want you getting hurt."

"Okay. Sorry, Fluttershy." I said, clearing my head. "Oh, and thanks."

"For what?"

"For letting War stay and for not flipping when he broke my nose. It really means a lot to me."

"What are friends for?" she said. "Besides, who am I to stand in the way of young love?"

"Young love? Fluttershy, you're only a year older than me. I didn't call what you and Silver had 'young love'."

"That's because there was no love. I don't want to talk about Silver right now, Pinkie, so drop it."

"Okey-dokey-lokey!" I said with a smile.

"How do you manage to stay so cheery, even as we're in the middle of a war that decides whether everyone we care for lives or dies? Aren't you scared?"

"When I was a little filly, and the sun was going doooown!" I sang.

"No. We're leaving now before you bust out the accordion." said Fluttershy, breaking into a smile for the first time in a while. I had a feeling that this mission would go well for us.

* * *

Fluttershy lifted me off of her back and lowered me onto the rooftop. She passed me a set of binoculars and pointed me to the other side of the building. I went to my spot and peered through them, searching for… There! Rarity! She was in a long trench coat that held her explosives. Rarity and the others had to be in their weird human forms, or else they would attract too much attention. That was okay with Aj and Dash, but Rarity hated being in that form. She said it was small and ungraceful. Rarity walked down the street and down an entrance into the subway. I turned my binoculars to the left a little and searched for Applejack. It took me a minute, but I found her, leaning against a streetlamp. She had her hands in the pocket of her black coat, probably setting the fuses on her explosives.

"Did you find them?" asked Fluttershy.

"Yup! They're in position!" I answered.

"Dash isn't quite ready yet. Give her a minute."

"Do you miss him?" I asked.

"Miss who?"

"Silver." I said, falling onto my back. The small stones and gravel was sort of uncomfortable, but I could deal with it.

"I said that I didn't want to talk about him." she said.

"No, you said, quote, 'I don't want to talk about Silver _right now_.' Key words being 'right now'. You said that a while ago, so we can technically talk about him!"

"Fine. What do you want to talk about?"

"Do you think about him a lot?" I asked, playing around with the stuff in my mane. I had a lot of stuff in my mane.

"All the time."

"How does he make you feel?"

"Guilty." she answered, pressing her finger to her earpiece communicator. "Dash is ready. Let's go, girls."

BOOM!  
BOOM!  
BOOM!

The girls set off their explosives, causing three different, resounding Ka-booms to ring through the air. The civilians ran and screamed in terror, pushing and shoving each other. It wasn't long before a car crashed, then another, and then another. Applejack, Rainbow, and Rarity were nowhere to be seen, which meant that everything was going according to plan. We would meet up near this building after it got chaotic enough, which wouldn't be long. The humans were basically rioting, and we weren't even done yet.

"Now, Pinkie." said Fluttershy. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the small remote that Twilight gave me. I pressed the first button on it and watched the several explosions of steam burst through the streets, scaring the poo out of the people below us. After all the pipes were busted, I pressed the second, and last, button on the remote. Dark green smoke began to pour from the ground, out of the sewers and manholes, from any and every urban crevice. What the humans would take for a chemical gas attack, was actually just colored steam that Twilight whipped up. It would look and react like a dangerous toxin, without actually hurting anyone.

"What now?" I asked.

"We wait for Discord to come to us." said Fluttershy. She raised her hand to scratch her head, but didn't get to move them very far. A set of thick, heavy chains appeared on her wrists, tying her to the building. I rushed forward to help and fell onto my face, tripping over the chains that restrained me.

"Wait for me to come to you?" laughed a mischievous voice from nowhere. "Well then, wait no more!"

POP!

Discord's serpentine body popped before us in a blinding flash of white light. He laughed crazily and leaned with his eagle hand against Fluttershy's chest.

"Discord!" shouted Fluttershy. "Let me go!"

"No can do, Shutterfly. Not until I bring you to my colleagues."

"You know my name. We were friends or whatever. I had you over to my cottage for tea, and you still call me Shutterfly? Would it kill you to remember my name, seeing as I'm the only reason you're not a statue right now?"

"I remember your name, my dear, but it's just so much more fun to see how angry I can make you. Look at your face! You could give the devil a run for his money!" laughed Discord. He snapped his fingers and two red devil horn hovered over Fluttershy's head. He pulled a pencil out of nowhere and drew a mustache and goatee on her face, along with really thick, angry eyebrows.

"Hehehe! That's kinda funny!" I giggled.

"And that's why you were my favorite, Pinkie Pie. Or rather, my second favorite. Nopony can really top Fluttershy."

"Then why are you fighting me? If you like me so much, why don't you stop trying to kill me?" asked Fluttershy.

"Okay, maybe I lied. A few can top you, my dear. Namely King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis." said Discord with a smirk.

"Why? What do they have that you didn't have when we were friends?"

"They can do things for me, give me things that you just can't supply."

"Like what?" I asked.

"Eternal chaos and a ham-and-cheese sandwich, although I could have one of those things in either case." Discord snapped his fingers, a sandwich appearing in his lion paw. He shoved it in his mouth and chomped noisily, kinda like how I get with ice cream cake.

"So what happens now? You kill us?" asked Fluttershy.

"Not quite. I told you, I have to bring you to my colleagues. I just wanted to chat about that little riot you started. Were you trying to impress me? If so, you've succeeded! All of that destruction and chaos in such a short amount of time, why, it brought a tear to my eye."

"I'm going to give you one more shot to let us go, or suffer the consequences." said Fluttershy angrily.

"Sorry, my dear, but you're not going anywhere. Well, you are, but you probably won't like it."

POP!

Fluttershy and I were gone from our rooftop, now in some sort of basement instead. We were still in chains, this time with our arms chained up and our legs chained down. Discord was nowhere to be seen, but in his place was somepony a little scarier. King Sombra laughed softly as he dragged us towards him, yanking us off the wall and into the middle of the concrete room. He stripped me and Fluttershy of our weapons and pressed the blade of his own sword against her neck, keeping me back with his other hand.

"That was quite a stunt you pulled." growled Sombra. "What was that? A futile attempt at self-preservation? Something to say 'give us liberty or give us death'? Doesn't seem your style. You and your friends don't seem to be the ones to give up so easily."

"Fuck you." said Fluttershy.

"Feisty. You're Fluttershy, correct? And this one is Pinkie Pie, unless I am mistaken. Fluttershy, you were there during Silver's attempt at assassinating me. You seem to have learned from your mistake, judging by your weapons and willingness to blow up the people you claim you're trying to protect."

"We didn't hurt anyone." I said.

"Not directly, no, but did you even think about the long-term consequences?" he asked us. "The damage done to the streets and property is going to cost a small fortune, not to mention to people killed from car crashes and trampling, and the rest of this filthy world is likely to become involved. It's just so much unnecessary nonsense that could have easily been avoided."

"How? By surrendering?" asked Fluttershy.

"Now that you mention it, yes."

"I'll surrender. The same day pigs fly and hell freezes over."

"But don't you see? It's too late for that. I'm not going to let you surrender until everything you ever loved is dust! Your friends, your family, your precious pets, anyone you passed in the street will all be crushed beneath my hoof, and your pain, your agony, your sorrow, will serve as a reminder to those who dare go against the King of Shadows! You won't even be able to escape me through death, for I will always be there, in your nightmares, in the corner of your eye, that little puff of breath on the back of your neck, a pair of eyes from nowhere staring into your soul!"

"You'll never beat us, Sombra." I said. "My friends are amazing, and we'll never stop fighting until our world is safe."

"Pinkamena Diane Pie, the misfit mare who makes foals laugh." snarled Sombra. He brought his sword over to me and started casting some sort of magic on it. It slowly melted into smoke, and re-solidified into a much smaller knife, with a wicked curve and a viciously serrated edge.

"Leave Pinkie alone!" shouted Fluttershy. 'If you're going to kill anypony, kill me! Celestia knows I deserve it!"

"Didn't you hear me? Death is too easy for you. You will not be able to escape this pain." said Sombra. He took the knife and stuck it into my throat. I tried to scream, but the blood blocked out the noise and produced a sort of gurgle. My brain melted in agony, and I dropped to my knees. He ripped the blade out and shoved it back in again, and again, and again, and again. The pain was unbearable, but after the 6th stab, I couldn't feel anything. In fact, I couldn't move. My body fell limp onto the ground as Fluttershy screamed and cried, kicking and squirming and threatening Sombra.

"Run." said Sombra, placing his index finger on her forehead. She disappeared in a pop of light, leaving Sombra alone in the basement with my corpse. He kicked my body once and stepped over me, crushing what used to be my fingers under his weight. My mind raced, every single thought I could think, I thought at once. Above all else, I thought of War. I hoped he wouldn't blame Fluttershy. It wasn't her fault. None of this was her fault. She was trying her best. Darkness began to overtake my mind, and my thoughts became less and less coherent. My brain was running out of time, and I could feel Twilight's disappointment at my lack of organization. End of Diary entry #3.

* * *

NAME: Pinkamena Diane Pie

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Pinkie Pie

AGE: 20 years

DIARY ENTRY: #3

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

STATUS: Deceased


	4. Rarity's Diary: Entry 1

NAME: Rarity

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: N/A

AGE: 22 years

DIARY ENTRY: #4

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Germaphobia

STATUS: Healthy

* * *

I bowed my head down and gently placed a single forget-me-not in front of Pinkie's headstone. I wasn't the first to visit, for there were already tulips and lilies and a single black rose. I assumed that one was from War, who was becoming very angry. I was afraid he might do something crazy, and, to be quite honest, I couldn't blame him. Pinkie was gone, which is something I still can't wrap my head around. It was different, at least for me, when Silver died. He was a marvelous person, but he wasn't one of us. I've known Pinkie Pie for years, and she had become a very big part of my life. After she died, everything seemed much more real. If it could happen to her, with all of us trying our best to protect her, what was stopping us from being killed? The fact is, we couldn't save her, and nopony can save us. I, for one, felt trapped and alone, not to mention scared out of my mind. This piece of plastic in my head wasn't helping, either.

"I need everypony to report to the training room." announced Twilight over the PA. She seemed drained, Pinkie's demise taking a toll on her mind. "It's been a few days, and I've finally looked through the diary. I have a few announcements about her."

I rose from Pinkie's grave and dragged myself inside the house through the back door. I went through the kitchen, paused for a moment to grab a pint of ice cream and a spoon, then slowly trudged down the stairs to the basement, filling my mouth with sweet, frozen deliciousness along the way. At the war table, which was our usual meeting place, was Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Conjure, War, and Twilight, with Fluttershy nowhere to be found.

"Ice cream at a time like this?" asked Rainbow.

"I'm a stress-eater." I said.

"It's gonna go right fer ya thighs." said Applejack.

"I don't care. Pinkie used to tell me that I should try to enjoy the sweeter things in life."

"Settle down, everypony." said Twilight. "I have to tell you a few things."

"Where's Fluttershy?" asked War. "Afraid of facing me?"

"She's working. Trying to find a way to get Sombra in the ground. She doesn't need to be here, because she already knows what I'm about to tell you. First of all, the mission was a failure. Obvious, I know, but I had to say it to put it on record. Next is Pinkie herself. You all know that her casket is empty, and that's because nopony knows exactly where she died. By now, Sombra has likely disposed of her body."

"I'll dispose of him." said Rainbow.

"This next thing is a little grim, so please, forgive me. It's her diary. The brain can survive for up to seven minutes after death, and during that time it does two things. One is that it replays it's memories at high-speeds, so that your life literally flashes before your eyes. The other thing it does is a process I call 'ghosting'."

"It can still react to it's surroundings." explained Conjure. "She was still thinking, still recording data using her chip. It held her consciousness together for a while. She said a few things during that time. Mostly to War."

"What'd she say?" asked War, leaning forward eagerly.

"She was thinking of you to her last second of thought. She also wanted to make sure that you didn't blame Fluttershy."

"It's her fault."

"Pinkie said otherwise. If you don't believe me, I can give you the diary and you can see for yourself." said Conjure

"But that's something we're not going to do unless you stay with us." said Twilight. "We need your help, War, and we can't have you bailing out on us again. If you want to make sombra pay, then you have to stick with us."

"With you? Sure. But not with Fluttershy." said War.

"Why ever not?" I asked.

"Is that even a question? Half of the people I care about the most are dead now, and it's all because of her."

"Half? How many deaths do you blame her for?" asked Twilight.

"Two. I'm a lonely guy."

Silence reigned over the room, nopony knowing quite what to say. We all had an idea of what we wanted to come out, but it would mean next to nothing coming from us. It took Fluttershy's voice over the PA, our leader saying what we were all thinking, to make War realize he was not the only one who lost something.

"I'm sorry." said Fluttershy quietly. "I'm so sorry. You were right, War. I was afraid to face you. I still am. Not because you might attack me, but because I can't stand to see your pain. All of your pain. Pinkie was wrong. This was my fault. I'm so incompetent that it resulted in two different deaths. To prevent the trifecta, I'm handing things over to Twilight. She's the leader now. I want all of you to follow her orders, rather than mine."

"No." said War.

"Come again?"

"You are not quitting. That would be an insult to me, to our friends, to Silver and Pinkie! Not only are you going to keep leading, but you're going to win this war for us! If you don't get your yellow ass down here to give us instructions, I will find you and add black and blue to your color scheme!"

"You're not the only one who gets a vote. This is a choice you all have to make." she said.

"If War gives his approval, then what would lead you to believe that we would not do the same?" I asked. "We're all here behind you, darling, and there is nopony at all that we'd rather follow."

"What's the plan?" asked War. Fluttershy remained silent for a minute before getting back into her commander mojo.

"We have to find exactly where she was killed. Find that building, not only do we find their base of operations, but we might also be able to grab her body and give her a proper burial."

"Sounds good." said Applejack. "Except fer the fact that we haven't the foggiest idea where she might be."

"No, but we have a way to find her. Remember what Rarity said before Pinkie and Conjure left to rescue War?"

"I said 'I don't want to lose you'. What does that have to… Oh! I remember now!" I said.

"What? I'm not getting it." said Rainbow.

"Pinkie said that she couldn't get lost, because there was a GPS in the chip."

"If we can trace the signal back, we have our own little black box." said Twilight. "I just have to go into her diary files, find the system properties, write up a quick little tracking program, maybe a mobile app to use on the go-"

"While Twilight is cleaning up the mess she made from that major nerd-gasm, I want the rest of you to patrol the town." said Fluttershy. "Try to stay quiet, but if you see a changeling, terminate them. No prisoners, It's too late for that."

"When do ya want us back?" asked Applejack.

"When you've seen so much changeling blood that the only color you can remember is green. Oh, and I said all of you, but I meant all of you except War."

"Hell no." said War. "I'm going."

"You've already been captured once. They're actually going to be looking for you, dumbass, and nopony is going to save you twice."

"You don't tell me what to do, bitch."

"Actually, I do, dickless."

"Good to have you back." said War. "Fine. What do I do instead?"

"I have some chores for you to do, namely reburying Silver. He's going to start stinking up the house."

"Rebury?" I asked. "That would imply that he has been unburied."

"We'll talk about it when you guys get back. Go!"

* * *

I rested my hand on my black, curved shortsword, which was invisible to all but me. Not that there was anyone to see them. I was alone in the riot-torn streets, leaning against the locked doors of a restaurant called Jackson's. I darted my eyes from left to right, trying to searching for somepony of any importance. Just as I was about to give up and head home, I spotted a flash of green from a block or so away, the signature of a changeling transformation. I closed my eyes and concentrated hard on my Chameleon Armor, my special Armor that I hadn't distributed to the rest of the group yet. It had a special function that most of my friends would find pointless, but I knew better. It was going to be very useful in just a moment. Useful, albeit a little... unbecoming.

"Fluttershy owes me big time for this!" I muttered to nopony. My skintight black suit, unladylike enough on it's own, slowly began to change into something utterly sleazy and repulsive. The fabric separated at my stomach, the top half shrinking upwards to create a tube top that just barely covered my breasts. Another split emerged, this time just a quarter of the way down my thighs, frilling up into the shortest skirt I've ever seen in my life. The rest of my suit, now only covering my legs, morphed and changed color, turning into cherry red, high heeled shoes. I was glad there were no mirrors for me to see myself in, because I looked like a regular… I can't even bring myself to say it! I looked like, like a….

"How much?" asked a tall, muscular man, sneaking up from behind. Ugh. Was it that obvious? I know the plan was indeed for him to take me for a prostitute, but I was hoping that maybe my elegant, sophisticated grace would shine through, and I would maybe have to convince him.

"We can discuss prices afterwards." I said, winking slyly. I was going to need a spiritual shower after this one. He grabbed my hand roughly led me down the street and into an alley. He pressed me against a dumpster and began fiddling at his belt.

"Hold on just a moment, darling. I can't work without the necessary protection." I said.

"I don't have any." he grumbled.

"Don't worry about a thing, darling. I have what you need right here."

I reached towards my pocket, but instead of pulling out a condom like this… gentleman… thought, I drew my sword and pressed the curved black blade against his neck. He backed away, allowing me off the dumpster. My Armor began to return to usual, much to my gratitude. I couldn't very well interrogate a man while I was dressed like a hooker.

"What is this?" he asked in fear. "What's going on?"

"Drop the act. I know you are a changeling, darling, and I just need to ask a few questions. Answer properly and you get to live. Stay quiet, and my blade gets a new paint job."

He burst into bright green flames, revealing his true, insectoid self. I sliced off his horn with my sword and pushed him against the nearest wall.

"Flith! You work for her, don't you? The Yellow Plague?"

"The Yellow Plague?" I asked. "Do you mean Fluttershy?"

"She is a curse to our people! Between her and The Black Death, countless of my brothers have been slayed!"

"Well, I truly do not wish to make it one more slain brother, so why don't you tell me what I want to know?" I said.

"What do I have to gain by betraying my queen?" In substitute of a verbal answer, I simply pressed my blade more forcefully against his neck. A thin stream of green flowed over my sword, and the changeling grimaced in pain.

"Fine! What do you want to know?"

"A few things. My friend has been killed recently, by Sombra. Where?" I asked.

"I don't know. My queen does not trust that charlatan king enough to allow us to interact with him."

"Hm. What does Chrysalis plan on doing next?"

"Show some respect towards the queen!"

"What does _Queen_ Chrysalis plan on doing next?" I asked, patience wearing thin.

"Nopony knows for certain, but rumor has it that she is going to Equestria to kill the pony princesses."

"You plan to kill celestia and Luna? When?"

"You get no more from me! You're just going to have to kill me!" I pressed my sword against his neck even more forcefully, then removed the blade completely. I let him fall to the ground and turned to leave the alley.

"Run." I said. "If Fluttershy finds you, she will not spare you like I did."

"Wait!" he pleaded. "Can I… Can I have a kiss?"

"What? The prostitute get-up was just a disguise. I am a proper lady, and I do not just sell my affection."

"Please. I'm so hungry."

I turned to face him, and felt a wave of pity overtake me. I really didn't want to, but this poor thing was starving, and I couldn't just let him. I crouched down and grabbed his face gently. I leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips, hoping that this would mock-physical infatuation would be a decent substitute for love. I broke away and turned away, hearing an utterance of thanks as I left the alley and returned to base.


	5. Rarity's Diary: Entry 2

NAME: Rarity

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: N/A

AGE: 22 years

DIARY ENTRY: #5

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Germaphobia, Unknown Virus

STATUS: Infected

* * *

When I arrived back at base, I was thoroughly exhausted. I've been feeling very sluggish lately, and I wasn't quite sure why. Maybe it's stress, or just being homesick, or maybe it was fear. Fear that we would fail, fear that all of Equestria and Earth would perish because we just weren't good enough. I sat down at the war table with all of that terror floating inside my head. Twilight slid in the room, almost as if she could read my mind and see that I yearned for company.

"I sort of can read your mind." she said, taking a seat to my left. "I have access to your diaries, remember?"

"So, you know how much danger the princesses are in?" I asked.

"Yes, I know. There's not much we can do about it, anyway. I'm sure that it's just speculation. Even if it was a legitimate plan, this is Princess Celestia we're talking about. She's not going to go down easily."

"It's not her I'm worried about. If I'm being perfectly honest, Twilight, it's not even the fate of Equestria that's heavy on my mind."

"Sweetie Belle." she said, understanding my fear. "I get it now. You're afraid that she might get hurt."

"Is that selfish?" I asked. "That I care more for my sister than I do for the entirety of Equestria?"

"Selfish? No. I'd be disturbed if you felt otherwise. You care about your sister, and you'd kill for her. You already have. That's perfectly okay."

"I'm glad you think so. I was starting to think I was going crazy."

"What is not okay, however, is what you did earlier." said Twilight sternly. "Now, I'm all for sparing lives and caring for other living things, but Fluttershy isn't going to take kindly to what you've done."

"How ever do you two find time to monitor each of us at all times?" I asked.

"We don't. We rotate, only checking on some of you some days. Today was supposed to be Pinkie's day to be monitored."

"Rarity!" shouted Fluttershy over the PA. "Outside! Now! By the graves!"

"Well, I suppose it was inevitable." I said, rising to my hooves. I trudged towards the back door, passing through the kitchen and heading outside. Fluttershy was already waiting for me, standing next to Silver's grave, which was sitting a few feet away from Pinkie's.

"Yes?" I said, bracing myself for the tirade.

"What is this?" asked Fluttershy, pointing at Silver's headstone.

"Seriously?"

"Answer the question."

"Silver's tombstone?" I tried.

"Correct." she said, walking over to the right. She pointed again. "And this?"

"Pinkie's."

"Two for two. And this?" she asked, pointing at the dirt next to Pinkie's grave.

"Nothing." I said.

"Not quite. Try again."

"Dirt?"

"Wrong again. This is your grave." she said. "Or, at least, this is where your grave is going to be. Do you understand? If you don't stop acting so stupid, I'm going to be tipping dirt over your coffin, which is something I really don't want to do. You're being dangerous, Rarity, and it might get you killed."

"Fluttershy, all I did was let him go. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't kill me. I made sure I was prepared in case of an attack." I reported.

"Like hell you did. I read the diary, and if I was there, if I was the enemy, you would've died. You turned your back too early, lowered your guard too willingly."

"Fluttershy, I was protected."

"By that hooker outfit?" asked Fluttershy. "You were exposed on nearly 90% of your body. You left most of your vital organs open for a stab."

"The Armor would've still kicked in." I said.

"How do you know? Have you tested it? Have I approved it? Face facts, Rarity, you would have died if that thing didn't need something from you. And now I have to figure out what he needed from you, because it sure as hell wasn't just a kiss."

"He was hungry! I was just trying to be helpful."

"Can I be a bridesmaid?!" she asked angrily.

"What?" I said confusedly.

"You said you were trying to be helpful, and that leads me to believe that you wanted to fix the problem of him being hungry. Unless they've evolved in the past 3 hours, the changelings feed off of love. If you could feed him, then you must love him, and if you love him, you're going to marry him, and if you're going to marry him, then I want to be a bridesmaid!"

"Fluttershy, I-"

"Are you trying to say that you don't love him?"

"Of course I don't! What sort of question-"

"Wait, so you don't love him?"

"No, I-"

"Then how the hell were you going to feed him?!" exploded Fluttershy. "Think for a second, damnit! I know you're normally pretty oblivious, but come on!"

"Fluttershy, I'm sorry! Is that what you wanted to hear?" I asked, failing to hold back the tears. "I'm sorry! I saw this poor creature who needed help, and I thought that I could have been the one to supply that help! Maybe you lost it when Silver died, but some of us still have compassion and love for others, regardless of who they are!"

"What did you say?" asked Fluttershy quietly. Her tone shifted from annoyance and disappointment to pure rage and hatred.

"I only meant… I didn't mean…" I stammered.

"Are you trying to say that I don't love anymore?"

"Fluttershy, darling, that's not what I meant. I-"

"All of this I do out of love! The changelings I kill, the way I yell at all of you, all of it! If I didn't love you, I would've let your ass get killed as soon as you were in danger! You think I'm doing this for my own benefit? To save my own skin? I don't! I do this for you, Rarity! Do you understand what has happened so far? Pinkie Pie died! She was murdered, and you want to get on me for being overbearing? Pinkie's died, so who's next? Who am I going to have to mourn next? Will I even be able to? I didn't even have time to mourn myself!"

"I don't understand." I said.

"No, I guess you don't. Do you even remember who the fuck I am?" she gasped, hiccupping and crying. "I'm Fluttershy! Do you remember her? The Element of Kindness? The one pony you would never expect to hurt you? Well, not anymore! I can't even look at myself in the mirror! I'm not a pony anymore, I'm a goddamn disease! They even call me The Yellow Plague. I'm a Plague. You want to know the only reason I haven't said 'screw it' and hung myself? You! You, Aj, Dash, Twi, Conjure, even War! You people are the only things keeping me here, and you're the only things I give half a damn about!"

"Fluttershy, I'm sorry." I muttered.

"No, you're not! I'm sorry! I'm sorry that I cared! If that's really how you feel, then fine. I won't care anymore. I'll stay out of your diaries, I won't watch over you, I'll just let you do whatever the hell it is you want to do!"

"I'm… sorry."

"Yo!" called a deep voice. War stepped out of the back door and stopped in between Fluttershy and myself. "What's going on here?"

"Mind your business." said Fluttershy, hiding her face and wiping her tears.

"As you two are arguing over the grave of my would-be wife, I think it is my business."

"I think I'll just go." I said, turning to run.

"Stay." said War. "Now, I know you two might have your differences, but are you guys serious? I don't care if you're arguing, I swear to God that I don't give a damn, but you could at least argue inside. You guys are fighting over the grave of my best friend, and your best friend, both of which would probably say something along the lies of 'Get your panties out of your ass'. Rarity, I don't know what you did, but I can tell by the way Fluttershy was cutting into you that you screwed up."

"That's how you know you were being dumb." said Fluttershy. "When War tells you that it was a bad idea."

"That being said, you went just a little overboard, Shy." continued War. "And by 'a little overboard' I mean 'damn, girl, you just tried to kill a fly with a machine gun'. Chill out a little next time."

"Is there any reason, besides patronizing me, that you came out here?" asked Fluttershy.

"Everyone's waiting for some orders. Go lead us, Commander-Shy." said War. "You don't want Rarity doing anything in the state she's in. I'll bring her to her room."

"On whose authority?"

"Mine." he said, grabbing my wrist. "Let's go, Rarity."

I quietly let myself be ushered into the house, silently reflecting on what Fluttershy had said. I had to apologize. I was being very unfair and even more inconsiderate. It was out of character, and I wasn't even sure why I shot at her like I did. I felt sick, like there was a balloon swelling in my stomach. War must have noticed the queasiness on my face, because he made an attempt to distract me.

"I heard that there's something called The Black Death among the changelings." he said brightly. "Any clue as to what that might be about?"

"How did you know about that?" I asked.

"I spied on Conjure, who spied on Twi, who was reading your diary."

"Oh. Well, then. I'm taking a bit of a guess here, and I might be wrong, but I think they were talking about you."

"Huh?" he asked.

"Well, they nicknamed Fluttershy 'The Yellow Plague', so I don't see why they couldn't have dubbed you The Black Death. You are black, and you do tend to cause changeling death, so it fits."

"Nice. My first battle title! War Horse, The Black Death. Legendary!"

I grabbed the banister to head upstairs, War just to my left. I yanked my hand back from the wooden rail in pain. I inspected my hand and removed the tiny splinter in it. A small trickle of green emerged from the wound, a bright, ghostly green liquid.

"Conjure needs to fix these banisters." I muttered. "This is the third splinter I've gotten on these stairs."


	6. Rarity's Diary: Entry 3

NAME: Rarity

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: N/A

AGE: 22 years

DIARY ENTRY: #6

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Germaphobia, Unknown Virus

STATUS: Infected

* * *

I woke up in the morning with a burning pain soaring through my body. I sat up and instinctively reached for my nightstand, grabbing for a brush that I knew wasn't there. I hadn't had a brush in ages, and my mane was truly suffering as a result. To my surprise, my hand found a little, plastic brush. Attached to it was a note, from Fluttershy.

"Sorry for yesterday." I read. "I'd never turn my back on you." I smiled and passed the brush through my mane, relishing the feeling. Simple pleasures like this were a rarity in these past three years. I absentmindedly brushed my mane, hoping that it would take my mind off of the paralyzing pain going through my body. I was mistaken. I rose to my hooves and peered into the mirror to groom myself, and nearly screamed at what I saw. My mane was falling out in several places, leaving bald patches scattered across my head. I picked at my new brush and pulled out the handfuls of blue hair.

"Oh my." I muttered to myself. "This is… not good. Not good at all. I can't let my friends see me like this."

I rushed over to my drawer and pulled out a large patch of black fabric and a bottle of fabric glue. I applied some to the cloth and stuck it over my head like a hat, covering my mane completely. I concentrated hard on my mane, and the fabric shifted in color and texture into more of my beautiful, silky smooth hair.

"What is this?" I asked myself. "Stress? To think that I'd rather be going grey."

"Rarity?" asked a voice from outside my locked door. "It's Fluttershy. Can I come in?"

"Of course, darling." I said, pointing at the door. My horn began to glow and I heard the faint click of the lock. Fluttershy pushed the door open and stepped into my room with a look of serious concern on her face.

"Feeling okay?" she asked.

"I'll be fine. I've learned from you that anypony can keep soldiering on, so long as they put mind over matter."

"You sure? I really don't want you to get hurt out there."

"Of course you don't." I said. "Fluttershy, I'm so very sorry about yesterday. I never meant to bite your head off like that, I honestly didn't. I don't know what came over me."

"You miss Pinkie. You're not the only one." she sighed. "It should've been me."

"Fluttershy! You mustn't talk like that!"

"It should have. Sombra only let me live because he thought it would hurt more. He was right. I'd rather be dead than try to fill the emptiness that Pinkie left."

"We can get through this together." I said. "As long as we all stick together, we will make it."

"But will we?" she asked. "Will we stick together?"

"Fluttershy, even if we wanted to leave, there's nowhere for us to go. We can't go back to Equestria, and Sombra will find us anywhere on Earth."

"That's not what I meant. Rarity, I really don't want to give you a false sense of security, which is why I'm making these trips in the first place. I really came her to give you the facts, and the fact of the matter is that we're losing. We were never really competing to begin with, but at this point? It's less of 'How do we win?' and more of 'How do we survive?'"

"We are fighting under two sets of rules, we and Sombra." I said. "Two different types of war. In Sombra's war, he loses if he doesn't win. In our war, we win if we don't lose. Important distinction."

"But what if the only way for us to win is to not compete?" she asked. "What if the only way out is a surrender?"

"Applejack taught me something when we were learning our firearms. She said 'You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. At very least try to miss 99.' I never truly understood it until now. We can't give up, Fluttershy, no matter how hard it gets. You're going to have to get even tougher, and we may lose even more friends. That's just the truth. What we cannot lose, however, are the ones we are fighting to protect. If we save even one person from Sombra's wrath, then we have succeeded. We have to at least get that 1%"

"Rarity, you are fantastic. Just amazing." she said. "I have to go now, but I need to know what you plan on doing?"

"You don't know? Don't you read my diary?" I asked.

"Not today. Today I have War, Twi has Conjure, and we are going to try to both skim through Dash's. The more diaries we can read each, the better."

"I suppose that makes sense. Does Twilight have a lead on Pinkie's body?"

"Yeah. We have it narrowed down to a ten-block radius." she reported.

"Then, there's your answer. I'm going to retrieve Pinkie's body." I said

"You're not doing that alone. It's too dangerous."

"I'm stealing a corpse, darling, not the Crown Jewels."

"I know, but-. Wait, how do you know about the Crown Jewels?" she asked with a smirk. "When did you have time to study Earth countries and their jewelry?"

"I think the U.K. is simply divine! And, as a fashionista who is going to have to eventually start up a business here, I would like to know my competition."

"Sometimes, I think you're crazier than Pinkie Pie is."

"Was. Crazier than Pinkie Pie was." I corrected. We sat there in silence for a few seconds, then shook our heads as if waking up from a sudden sleep.

"These damned chips." muttered Fluttershy. "Rarity, if you're positive you can do this, then I'll let you. Just be careful, okay?"

"Okay." I said, waving her out. "If you would excuse me, dear, I have to change."

"I get it. See you later."

Fluttershy exited my room and closed the door behind her. I pointed my finger and magically locked it. The pain in my stomach was almost unbearable, at least to me. To somepony tougher, this might've been nothing, but until now the worst pain I've felt was period cramps. Not even the same league as this, mind you. I coughed hard into my hand, spitting out a thick, green liquid. It was a familiar ghostly green, but I couldn't quite place the color. It wasn't exactly a common shade, rather something relatively rare that I've seen so much of on an everyday basis that it just slips into my mind and camouflages itself with the rest of my memories.

"I'll get to the bottom of it later." I muttered to myself. I was beginning to make a habit of that, talking with myself. "I do hope I can learn to stop. I'm starting to look like a mad old lady."

* * *

I stepped off of the bus with my phone in hand. I leaned against a nearby building and tapped at my phone, reopening the app that Twilight had made. The app would help me find the building that Pinkie was killed by triangulating the last known position of her chip. All I had to do was be in the three locations Twilight had described, and this was the final location. I tapped the last button on the screen and waited for the app to work it's magic. I was one of the few people in the streets, and the others were all homeless men in tattered, greasy clothes. One man with skin the color of chocolate came up to me.

"Better get running, lil miss. This town is dangerous nowadays." he said. "Didn't you see them there bombs go off the other day? It was a few blocks away, and a ton of folks are on the run, scared. Pretty girl like you should split town before the mutations set in."

"Thank you for the compliment, sir, but there is no mutation."

"How could you know, missy?"

"What if I told you that I was there?"

"What if I told you that the mutation is already attacking your face?" he said. "I'm telling you, it's the government! They're trying to kill us all off so we can't collect our Social Security! There was something in that gas, and it's changing you, missy! I can see it now! Run, before it's too late!"

"But sir-" I tried. He ran off quickly before I could get out more than a few words out. I ignored him. It was just some crazy old man, anyway. He had no idea what he was talking about. My phone beeped, alerting me that the scan was complete. I had my location, four blocks north and one block east. The app pulled up a GPS map trail for me to follow, which I promptly set out to do. There were very few people in the streets with me, only one or two. It seems the man was right in saying that many people fled after our little bomb scheme. The trickling of people who were in the streets were staring at me, but not in the way I am used. It was more or less an everyday occurrence, at least in Equestria, that I would get a gawk or the occasional wolf-whistle. It was a bit of selfish, conceited pleasure, but I felt I deserved it. I kept with my appearances for a reason, and if nopony noticed, I was doing it wrong.

But this is different. People were staring at me with fear and disgust, not the way you'd look at a beautiful woman. Finally, I got fed up and asked a man walking past what exactly was happening.

"Excuse me, sir, but can I please inquire as to what you are staring at?" I asked angrily.

"Um…. Nothing." he said, walking away. "Sorry, please carry on."

"What? If it's so much of 'nothing' then why was he staring?" I asked myself.

"Your eye." said a voice, elegant and graceful, much like my own. I turned around and was face to face with a tall woman with bright, emerald green eyes, and she was exhibiting a dark black pant suit. Her hair, faintly turquoise, fell over her shoulders and down to the middle of her back.

"I beg your pardon?" I said in confusion.

"Come with me and I'll show you." she said, walking forward. I felt the pain in my stomach return, this time even stronger than before. I pushed forward, following closely behind this woman. My vision grew fuzzy, blurring more and more with each step. I stumbled forward nearly blindly as the woman led me towards an alleyway. When we were away from the main street, she began to grasp my arms and stomach, almost as if inspecting me.

"Tell me, girl, are you feeling any pain?" she asked.

"Yes, actually. Mostly in my stomach, but it spreads and declines with no warning." I said. I grasped my invisible blade in fear, unaware as to why I even followed her.

"You can move your hand right off of the sword, thank you. That won't be necessary."

"Who are you?"

"Would you believe me if I said my name was Christina?" she asked. She pulled a small knife from her jacket pocket and pricked my left index finger with it, drawing that strange green liquid again.

"Well then, Christina, how did you know about my sword?" I asked.

"I was joking. Did you really think my name is Christina? I just commanded you to follow me and you obeyed. I have complete control over you, and you think I'm Christina? Think, girl."

"I don't understand."

"Ugh. Fine." said "Christina". She was surrounded in green flames, burning away at her clothes. she stepped out a moment later, her true form revealed. Queen Chrysalis, in all of her hole-riddled, black-robed glory, stood before me, inspecting the blood on the knife. She even went as far as tasting it. I drew my sword and ran forward to attack. She pulled a bright green revolver from an inner pocket in her robes, pointing it at me.

"Kneel." she commanded. The pain filled my body again, and I found myself on my knees, groveling before the queen of changelings.

"What's happening to me?" I asked.

"Well, that's what I'm here, to find out what happened. The virus was only 89% successful, which is unfortunate for me. Sombra won't let me waste any more time perfecting it, so that's that plan scrapped."

"Virus? What virus?" I asked.

"You kissed my child, and he passed a contagion into you." she explained. She summoned a full body mirror using her mirror and placed it in front of me. A scream escaped my throat as I looked into my own, horrific image. My left eye was a completely solid cyan, no difference in pupil or sclera. The area around my eye was peeling, revealing a hard, black, armor-like skin.

"What did you do to me?!" I asked in outrage.

"The virus is known as Alterimphage 13." she explained. "It was meant to alter the DNA and physical makeup of the victim, turning them into changelings. It was mostly successful, except for the painful death."

"Why am I listening to you?"

"Because you have to. Changelings have a hormonal override, which basically means that they have no choice but to listen to the largest source of changeling hormones. That would be me. Your body is changing, and you've developed that override. It's a shame, really. I was hoping the virus would work. I'd have many more children that way, and nopony would be able to stop us."

"What happens next?" I asked. In answer, she pressed the barrel of her gun against my forehead, just beneath my horn. "That's it? You're going to shoot me?"

"You're going to die regardless, from the pain of the virus." she said.

"So, what? Are you going to put me down, like some sort of animal? A more humane death? Hm? Are you going to alleviate my pain via a shot to the head?"

"To put an Equestrian out of their misery? I wouldn't waste the bullets." she said. "I have two choices. Either I can leave you for dead, or I can kill you now and eliminate your suffering. If you beg, I might shoot you now."

"Beg? I may be dying, I may be down with no chance of recovery, but I'm a person for Celestia's sake." I said angrily. "I have my dignity. If I am going to perish, I am going to do it with pride."

"Pride? Dignity? You are about to die and you care about these things?"

"Of course. Dignity is one of the main factors that propelled us to fight. The dignity to stand up to those who oppress us. We weren't about to take a beating lying down, oh no. We're going to fight. Our fires will burn ever brighter until the darkness is eradicated."

"Your flame is about to be snuffed out, my dear. Let it go." she said.

"Snuffed out? No. My fire won't go out. It will be taken on by my friends. Any fight I have in me, or that I would have, my friends will adopt and deliver to you tenfold! You may destroy me here, but you will not prevail! I've lost this fight, but not this war!"

"So confident in your sisters' ability. You could've been a good changeling." said Chrysalis.

"How funny. I was just about to say the same to you." I shot back. Pain rose through my body, like my intestines were boiling in oil. I fell onto my side, gasping for air. Chrysalis put her gun against my knee and pulled the trigger. I felt the bullet enter my body and lodge itself in my knee, shattering bone and splattering green changeling blood on the floor.

"Farewell." said Chrysalis. She was bathed in green light and vanished from the alley with a _POP_! The pain rose and rose to a boiling point, then exploded out of control. I felt a swelling pain in my chest, which promptly exploded, then slowly died down. I lost control of my body, it falling limp onto the ground, as opposed to the sort of fetal position I was in. Slowly, but surely, the pain faded from my body, leaving me with an empty feeling. Like nothing was real, like I wasn't there. My corpse sat in the alley, just waiting for someone to find. A cloud of darkness overtook my mind, garbling my thoughts and perception. My time was almost over, just like Pinkie's. I would see her soon. There's the silver lining I've been looking for.

* * *

NAME: Rarity

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: N/A

AGE: 22 years

DIARY ENTRY: #6

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Germaphobia, Alterimphage 13

STATUS: Deceased


	7. Applejack's Diary: Entry 1

NAME: Applejack

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Aj

AGE: 22 Years

DIARY ENTRY: #7

NOTABLE CONDITIONS: Workaholism, Separation Anxiety Disorder

STATUS: Healthy

* * *

I sat on the bare ground to the right of Rarity's tombstone with my hat on my lap. I was so mad that I wanted to punch something, and having nopony to talk to was making it a hell of a lot worse. Even if we weren't all so busy, nopony would know what to say. The only two, maybe three, who would were all dead to my left. This "war" of ours was getting out of hand. I say "war" but that's a bit of a stretch if I'm being perfectly honest. We were being hunted, like a big ol elk in the woods. Fluttershy said we would be fine, that we would survive, but I think she's all hat, no cattle.

"Yo!" called Rainbow Dash, flying in and dropping down next to me. Speaking of all hat, no cattle…

"What do ya want?" I asked.

"Just came to check on you. And to offer you one of these." She leaned to the side and handed me a box of cigarettes. I took one gratefully and took the lighter she had hid in her bra. She took a cig into her mouth and leaned forward. I lit it for her then stuck mine in my mouth.

"I've always been more of a chewin tobacco girl, myself." I said, lighting my cigarette. "But thanks all the same."

"Well, I think we deserve a smoke. We weren't the first down, so that definitely deserves some points."

"I knew it. I knew it, but I thought I'd give you the benefit of the doubt. You've finally proven, without a shadow of a doubt, that you can't do it."

"What is it that I can't do?" she asked, rubbing her eyes. They were bloodshot, almost like she was crying.

"You can't have a single moment of sensitivity without saying something that makes you seem like you got your head so far up your ass that you can shit past your tonsils."

"That's really gross, Aj. What the hell?"

"And what's up with your eyes? I know you ain't been crying, now." I said. "Have ya'll been smoking?"

"Duh." she said, raising her cigarette out of her mouth. She puffed out a little cloud of smoke absentmindedly."

"Ya know what I meant, dammit."

"Oh, you mean… Well, since you asked, I did have a little something." she said. "I made some brownies and had a little left over, so I rolled one. Sue me."

"Ya know what scares me about that story?" I asked, puffing out smoke. "My question isn't even 'Where did you find the pot?', no, the question is 'Where in the sam hills did you get brownie mix?"

"I know a guy."

"Is this guy named 'Wal-Mart'?"

"No!" she said. "He's named 'Food Lion'."

"Clever. What were you doing just now?" I asked, tapping the ash out of my cigarette. It was definitely helping, calming me down a lil.

"The same thing I do every Saturday."

"And what is that? Stalkin me?" I asked.

"Aj, if I wanted to stalk you, I'd wait until you took a shower." she said with an evil smirk. "It wouldn't be hard. You never close the shower curtain, and it wouldn't be hard to get Conjure to make me invisible."

"Yeah, yeah, you're funny. Everypony is laughing." I said with a small grin. "I know you're full of more bullshit than a bag of manure."

"Keep thinking that. While you're thinking, try to figure out how I knew you don't close the curtain."

The little smile on my face dropped when I thought about it for a minute. My face fell into a scowl, and I was madder than a bobcat caught in a piss fire. I grabbed her by the shirt collar and dragged her closer.

"Rainbow Dash, if I ever catch you peepin me in the shower, you're gonna have hell to pay." I growled. Rainbow Dash showed off her skill of keeping cool under pressure, just pushin my hand off of her shirt.

"Relax, Aj. I'm just playing around." she said.

"I ain't. I don't play, ya know, I quit school cause of recess. I won't hesitate to open up an industrial-size can of whoopass."

"You quit school because of recess? Wow, Aj, you must be really, really, really dumb. Don't you know that recess was always the best part of school?"

"Jackass. It's an expression. Sometimes, I wonder if you got enough chlorine in your gene pool."

"Sometimes, I wonder if you know what a gene pool is." she shot back. It got mighty quiet over the next couple seconds, and the brunt of our loss hit me for the first time. They were gone. Two of my oldest friends, I would just never see again.

"You miss Pinkie?" I asked.

"Yeah." she sighed.

"Rarity too?"

"Yup."

"Silver?" I asked.

"That's the question, huh? I mean, I shouldn't really care. I really, really shouldn't. " she said, stubbing out her cigarette on the ground. "I should hate him. When you think about it, this is all his fault. That was his plan, and it was his fault all of this went to hell. If he would've thought before he rushed in to capture them all, he wouldn't have died. If he wouldn't have died, nopony else would've died either."

"But do you miss him?"

"Yeah. He didn't deserve to die, and we'd all be much better off with him still here. You realise that, even if we survive, we're never going home, right?"

"I know. It's just too weird to think bout. I mean, who's gonna run the farm now?" I asked. "Mac can't do it on his own, and I'll be damned if Granny has to work. I guess Applebloom is gonna have to step in, but I never wanted to force her into the farm, like I was."

"You didn't want to work on the farm?" asked Rainbow.

"Nah. If I'm being honest, I always wanted to be a teacher at the schoolhouse. Cheerilee beat me to it, I'm afraid. Still, I'm sort of glad she did. It helped me fall into reality. Made me understand that my moms and pops wasn't comin back."

"Your parents just ditched you?"

"I'm sure they had reasons, but yeah. Dropped me, Applebloom and Big Mac off on the farm and up and split, faster than a bee stung stallion."

"Wow. I never knew that. Then again, I never asked."

"I probably wouldn't have told, even if you did. I don't like to talk about Ma and Pa. Me and Mac can hardly remember them, and I don't think Applebloom knows what they even look like."

"You must miss her. Applebloom." she said, falling onto her back. "You know who I miss the most? Scootaloo."

"She's gonna be missin you too, sugarcube. She's gonna be missin you." I said.

"Applejack, can you promise me something?"

"As long as it's within my power."

"Promise me you'll stay alive." she sighed.

"Huh? Well, my plan was actually to just keel over and let the enemy step all over me, but for you… I guess I can change that plan."

"Who taught you about sarcasm?"

"Some rainbow-haired dyke I've been forced to hang around. She's a crazy bitch, but she's been growing on me. Ya know, over the course of 10 years."

"Ha. But for real, please stay alive. I don't care what it takes, just don't let them take you from us."

"I promise, sugarcube, but let me just ask why? I mean, obviously you don't want me to die, but why did you have to ask?"

"I can't stand to lose another friend." she said, rising to her hooves. "It… well, it sucks. Don't tell anyone, but I was lying."

"About what?" I asked.

"I didn't get any weed."

"Then what's with your… oh. You were crying."

"Hey, hey, hey, now! No need to tell the entire city now." she said.

"My lips are sealed. I promise."

"Promise not to tell or promise not to die?"

I threw my cigarette onto the ground and stepped on it, putting it out with my hoof. I opened my right hand and spit into my palm. I stuck it out, waiting for RD to do the same. She did, and we shook hands.

"Both." I said. "Let's go inside, alright?"

I got up and stepped carefully over Rarity's grave, then Pinkie's, then Silver's. Dash fluttered off the ground, hovering to my left as we entered the house through the back door and down the stairs to the training room. War, Conjure, Twi, and Fluttershy were already there, waiting for us at the war table. War kept scratching at the new scar on his forehead. He must've been uncomfortable from the surgery, and I couldn't blame him. We all felt the same when Twi first did it.

"War, if you don't stop scratching, I'm going to have to get you a dog-cone." said Fluttershy. "It's bad enough that you look like a mutt. You don't have to act like one."

"Fuck off, Commandoshy." he growled. "It itches, okay?"

"Ha! Commandoshy." laughed Conjure. "See, Twi? I told you it would stick."

"One person coincidentally calling her that does not mean that the nickname 'stuck'." said Twilight.

"So, what's shaking?" asked Dash, taking a seat next to Twilight. "What do my bad bitches got for me today?"

"Have you been smoking?" asked Fluttershy, sniffing the air. "I smell smoke."

"Nah. You must be imagining things."

"Twi, give me your phone. I need to check Dash's diary."

"Fine, damn!" said Rainbow. "Yeah, we had a smoke. So, what?"

"I forbade cigarettes, tobacco, cigars, alcohol, crack, pot, and any other abusable substances for a reason, Dash." said Fluttershy. "If you get asthma or some shit because you just _needed_ your menthols, and you can't run too long without having an attack, I won't be able to do shit to save you. Twi and Conjure can heal a lot of things. Being ugly and asthma are not on that list, or else War would be fine."

"I'm not even sure I have the energy for a middle finger right now, so I'll just have to write this one down." said War, pulling out a pen and scribbling onto his hand. I leaned over and glanced at it. It read "Give Flutter-bitch the finger".

"Anyway, we need to talk." said Twilight. "We all know Rarity died. What we didn't know, at least until now, is how she died. I looked through her diary and found the answer. She was infected with a body-altering virus. It was meant to convert her into a changeling."

"Did it work?" I asked. "I'd like to know if the next changeling I pop in the head might be one of my oldest friends."

"No, it did not work. I'll let you decide if that's a blessing or a curse. From what I gathered, she died from massive organ failure. Her liver, kidney, spleen and pancreas simultaneously failed, and her heart literally popped."

"That's awful." I said. "That musta hurt like a bitch."

"It did." said Fluttershy. "The only reason Chrysalis couldn't fix the virus was because her sugar-daddy wouldn't let her. She tried to do this twelve times before, and Sombra drew the line at thirteen. So, no more virus."

"What else do we know?" asked Conjure. "There's gotta be more than that, or you would've texted us."

"We need you guys' approval." said Twilight.

"Ahem." coughed Fluttershy.

"Sorry. _I_ need you guys' approval."

"To do what?" I asked.

"Well, it's no secret that I can see into your heads through the diary, but we've been holding back." explained Twilight. "We only look at valuable information, and we don't do it everyday. What I'm asking permission to do is to look at all of your life, everyday of the week."

"Why did you ask?" said War. "I'm glad you did, but what made you think to ask permission?"

"Well, I'd be seeing some pretty personal things and I just thought it'd be rude to just poke around your head all willy-nilly."

"You don't have to ask to poke at my head." said Conjure. As soon as he said it, his face grew bright red from embarrassment. He smacked his forehead with his palm and hid his face from view. For such a smart guy, he can be a few pancakes shy of a short stack, if you catch my drift.

"Wow." laughed War. "Eager, are we?"

"Please, kill me now." muttered Conjure.

"Um… hello?" said Twilight, blushing almost as bad as Conjure. "This is why I asked. If I didn't have any context to that, I would've been very uncomfortable. It's a good thing I know what we're talking about."

"Ha! You think he meant his brain!" laughed War. "He wants you to touch his-" I'm sure he would've gotten out more, if it weren't for Conjure's fist mysteriously finding it's way into his adam's apple.

"Moving on." said Conjure quickly.

"Right." said Twilight. "Are you guys okay with me looking through your entire mind everyday? I'll be able to see your dreams, your fantasies, every thought you have. Don't worry, I won't share it with anypony, unless it is a danger to us or yourself. It'll be doctor-patient confidentiality, so to speak."

"I'm fine with that." I said. "I don't like havin secrets, anyhow."

"So long as you don't report me for murdering Conjure." said War, massaging his neck. "That hurt like a bitch."

"Muscle spasm." said Conjure.

"Well? Are you okay with Twilight poking around your brain? I mean, giving your crush the ability to see all your dirty little dreams and fantasies about her has to be hard on somebody's mind."

"So, Conjure?" asked Twilight, blushin like a sun-burnt tomato. "I-is that okay?"

"I feel like if I say anything else about this, that I might make an even bigger ass of myself, so just take my lack of an answer for a 'yes'." said Conjure. "I swear, there will come a day when I can talk to a girl without looking like a moron, but that day is not today."

"I got nothing to hide." said Dash. "But, just to be clear, you're not gonna tell anypony about what we think, right?"

"Of course not." said Twi. "Wouldn't dream of it."

"Why? Got some guilty thoughts?" I asked.

"Nah. I just don't want her to let you know when I'm watching you undress."

"What?! You can't do that! I have a right to privacy, dammit!" I growled. "Fluttershy! Do somethin!"

"Huh?" asked Shy. "Sorry. I was daydreaming. What happened?"

"Nothing." said Rainbow quickly. "She's just having a moment."

"Ya'll heard that, right?" I asked. "Ya'll heard how she's plannin to go and be a Lil Bo Peepin people's privates?"

"Um… I guess I have no choice but to keep my silence." said Twilight. "It's not really hurting anypony, so… Sorry?"

"No, it's fine. All I gotta do is make it so that she don't like what she sees. Shouldn't be hard. Just gotta throw away my razors, maybe skip a few showers…"

"You own a razor? Why?" asked War. "Aren't we all covered in fur?"

"Gotta keep trimmed somehow."

"Wait, how the hell did we get on this subject?" asked Fluttershy. "I daze out for a second and suddenly we're talking about perverts and shaving. What the actual hell happened?"

"Sorry, Fluttershy. I lost control of this announcement, and I'm not sure how." apolergized Twilight. "Well, if nopony opposes, I'll be starting this new program today. Hopefully, this will help Fluttershy and myself keep an eye on you better. If we only would've done this before, I might've been able to save Rarity. Well, since everypony's onboard, I give the floor to Fluttershy."

"Okay, everypony." said Fluttershy. "We've lost a lot so far, but we may be able to regain one last thing. I've been thinking, and I think the threat on Celestia's life is legit. As much as I don't give a damn, this opens up a unique opportunity."

"And what's that, sugarcube?" I asked.

"Think about it. Sombra's going to try and kill Celestia. How is he going to get there?"

"Fluttershy, we may have our disagreements, but you're a damn fine commander." said War. "If you're suggesting what I think you are, then you are a freaking genius."

"Aww, thank you. That's the nicest thing an ape like you has ever said to me."

"And just like that, I revoke that compliment and replace it with a hearty 'fuck you'."

"Buy me a drink first, jackass." said Fluttershy. "In any case, War is thinking along the right lines. If Sombra is going to kill Celestia, then he must have a portal. If he has a portal, we have a portal."

"We're going home?" I asked, smiling wider than the Ghastly Gorge.

"Damn right. Who's ready to tear shit up in a brand new dimension?"

Everypony's hands went up. Finally. If there was one thing this group, this mix-matched, hodge-podged, chimera of races was good at, it was causing trouble. We tore more shit than a buzzsaw toilet. And, for once, that was a damn fine trait to have.


	8. Applejack's Diary: Entry 2

NAME: Applejack

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Aj

AGE: 22 Years

DIARY ENTRY: #8

NOTABLE CONDITIONS: Workaholism, Separation Anxiety Disorder

STATUS: Healthy

* * *

The next day, top of the morning, I grabbed my double barrel off the wall and strapped it to my hip. Fluttershy tossed me a backpack, filled with bullets, knives, grenades, water, toothpaste, and other incidentals. Fluttershy dismissed me, telling me to wait until she called me back. I took that time to say one last goodbye to Rarity and Pinkie. I walked outside and sat at their graves, my anger nearly boiling over.

"It just ain't fair." I said. "Ya'll had so much life left, and it was just stole from ya. Without ya'll, I don't know how the rest of us are gonna get on. Oh my Celestia, somepony's gonna have to tell Sweetie Belle. She's gonna be heartbroken. She idolized you, ya know Rarity? She wanted to be just like her big sis. She's gonna miss ya, I know that for sure."

"I'm in no position to judge how another deals with loss, but I have to ask." said Twilight, teleporting in to my right. "Are you talking to Rarity?"

"Sure am." I answered. "Granny Smith did it when Granddad died, and it seemed to help her. Then again, she did end up goin nuttier than squirrel shit for a while, but we put her right in the end."

"So, you think you're going crazy?"

"You tell me. I don't even know anymore." I sighed. "It's mostly Dashie's fault."

"Huh? What did Rainbow do?" asked Twilight.

"You ever feel like you gotta say something to somepony, but as soon as you go to say it, it just get's stuck in your throat?"

"Not often, but yes."

"Well, there you are." I said. "It's not important right now. What's important is us coming up with a plan. Not just for fighting, but for after."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Who's gonna tell the Cakes about Pinkie? Or Sweetie Belle about Rarity? What do we even tell em? 'Sorry, she's dead now. By the way, we lost their bodies, so we can't even bury em'? We can't do that."

"We'll figure something out. You're right, though. Sweetie Belle is going to be devastated. At least she'll have Applebloom and Scootaloo to help her through this."

"That's true, that's true. This is all in the event that we even get home." I said. "Ya realise how dangerous this is, right? This is sorta in-or-out, no more half-measures. If we don't get through this portal on the first try, we're coming back home disappointed or, Celestia forbid, not at all."

"Fluttershy and I have worked out all of the angles." said Twilight. "We've developed a fool-proof plan that cannot fail."

"Really? What's the plan?"

"To lie to you guys and tell you we have a plan. That way, you'll feel confident until we get there and we actually do come up with something."

"Why not just tell us we're screwed more than a phillips head?"

"We're not. Just sort of… blind. We have no tactical plan, but the goal and method are fairly obvious. Run in, slay the changelings, hijack the portal. There's not too much to think about."

"That's what we thought when we were luring Discord." I pointed out. "Remember what happened?"

"I'll never forget." she sighed. "Never forget." I felt awful bad for bringing up Pinkie again, so I thought it best to change the subject.

"Is Conjure and War comin?" I asked. "To Equestria, I mean. Earth is their home, and they got family, I'm sure. Are they just gonna leave all that behind? I don't think Princess Celestia will be able to send us back."

"No, I don't think she will. She said herself that the Rifts she and Luna opened were dangerous, and Sombra's can't be any better."

"How did he get here, anyway? He used a Rift?"

"We can only assume." said Twilight. "I've ran the numbers, and for every time he opens one of his Rifts, the universe is torn open by 4% of it's total size."

"4%? That ain't that bad." I said. "4% is tiny."

"It is, until you remember that the universe is infinite, and, by extension, 4% also has infinite capabilities. If today, 4% equals 100 AU, or Astronomical Units, then by tomorrow it could soar to equal 1000 AU."

"I don't get it."

"4% isn't a constant number. It's not even really a numerical representation at all. The universe is being ripped by 4%, and 4% is an ever expanding number. While it may appear harmless now, the long-term consequences are boundless! Unimaginable! Unfathomable!"

"So… That's bad, huh?" I asked. All them numbers was makin my head hurt.

"Yes, Applejack." sighed Twilight. "The continuing damage, and eventual destruction of our universe and everything in it does constitute as 'bad'."

"Could ya fix it?"

"If given the opportunity, the universe will heal itself."

"How?" I asked. "It's not alive, is it?"

"Technically, no." she said. "But, as there is infinite energy dancing around the universe, it will heal the wounds. If I were to cut my arm, my body will first slow the bleeding, then the blood will scab, and new skin will generate. The universe will do something similar. The energies will stop leaking, then it will coagulate in the sense that it creates a barrier to keep the energy in. Then that barrier will adapt and become part of the universe, just like the rest of it."

"How in the hell did ya figure all that out?"

"Conjure and I have a mutual love for quantum physics. He's just as smart, if not smarter, than me, which is very impressive. We have a wager going to see who will be the first to crack the secret of nuclear fusion. Don't tell him, but I'm already half-way there."

POP!

With a burst of green light, Conjure appeared before us, skinny as a twig and the brightest white I've ever seen. His bright green eyes shined with a determined twinkle, and he looked oddly cocky. Conjure was pretty accomplished, but you'd have a damn hard time tellin him that. As far as he was concerned, he was completely ordinary, which just ain't true.

"Half-way?" he snickered. "I thought you'd be farther along than that. I'm three quarters of the way finished, so you'll have a hard time catching up."

"Is that so? I could always steal your work." said Twilight.

"You don't know where I keep my work journals."

"I wasn't talking about your journals."

"Ya seem to have forgotten that Twi can see whatever it is that you're thinkin." I said. "Good luck keepin secrets from her."

"You wouldn't!" exclaimed Conjure. "That's cheating!"

"You already gave me permission." laughed Twilight. "I could look at your formulas right now."

Conjure's horn was surrounded by a bright green light and a faint trail of steam flew from under his long, orange hair.

"Not anymore. I hid it deep in the code of the diary program." said Conjure with a smile. "You'd have to write up an amazing hacking program to find that data. Good luck."

"Now who's cheating?" asked Twi.

"Ha! I've never cheated a day in my life! Oh, but I forgot myself. Believe it or not, I actually came her for a reason. Commandoshy is ready to go. She said, quote, 'Get going, or I'm leaving you idiots to rot here while we're chilling in Equestria. Hurry the hell up.' She might be serious."

"Please stop calling her 'Commandoshy'." said Twilight. "It's unbecoming."

"Silver would've loved it." sighed Conjure. "Which reminds me, I need your help. There's a spell I need that I can't do alone."

"What sort of spell?"

"I need to open a portal to a pocket dimension, so that I can bring Silver's body with us."

"Wait, wait, wait." I said. "Since when did dimensions have pockets?"

"We live in a multiverse, which is larger than infinite." explained Conjure. "Inside of this multiverse are an infinite number of universes, such as my universe and Equestria. These universes are stacked on top of each other, with a few small spaces in between. These spaces form a pocket that can, in theory, be travelled into using the same principles of a Rift. These pocket dimensions, pocket universes, or pocket worlds, depending on your preference, are typically the size of a bedroom. I want to put Silver in a pocket dimension, then, when we get to Equestria, pull him out and re-bury him."

"Why not just put him in a duffle bag?" asked Twilight.

"It's weird, but the bigger-on-the-inside spell doesn't work on organic matter. The house only works because we could already fit inside, but if I tried putting Silver's body into a bag, the spell would collapse."

"Alright. I'll help you in a moment."

"Ya need help diggin?" I asked. "I'm mighty good with a shovel."

"I would love if you helped, Applejack." said Conjure. "It's awfully depressing to do alone, and I think you're just what I need to cheer me up a little. Your accent always made me laugh."

"So, now ya'll is makin fun of how I talk?" I asked.

"What? No! Nononono, that's not what I meant! See, what i actually meant is that it was… charming! That's the word, charming! I swear, I meant no offence, I promise!"

"Remember yesterday when you said there would be a day when you could talk to a girl without lookin dumb?" I asked. "Ya said that it wasn't that day. Looks like it ain't today, either. Listen, Conjure, I'm just jokin around with ya."

"I hate you." he said, resting his face in his palm. "I hate you just a little bit."

"A little hate makes the love all the sweeter. Remember that if she's playin hard to get."

"Who's 'she'?" asked Twilight. "I didn't know you were dating someone! This changes everything!"

"She just meant it in general, Twilight." said Conjure, blushing just a bit. "Who would I be dating anyway? The only people I've interacted with in the last three years are you guys. Pinkie was with War, Rarity had her eyes on somepony else, Spike I assume, Fluttershy wouldn't touch me with a ten-foot cattle prod, I'm almost positive that RD is gay, and we both knew that I'm not dating you."

"That just leaves me, and that would never happen." I said. "He got a snowball's chance in hell."

"Thanks for the confidence, Aj." he said sarcastically.

"That's not what I meant, sugarcube. It would never happen cause me and RD ar in the same boat."

"Oh." said Twilight. "Well, I just… Sorry, I don't know what came over me! I just made an assumption, which is something Princess Celestia taught me never to do. She'd be very disappointed in me, and I can only hope I could redeem myself. She won't even know what i'm talking about if I bring it up, because she didn't see it. This is all assuming we actually get home, which is a huge assumption. Oh, look at me, assuming again! You know what they say about assuming, right? You should never assume, it makes an ass out of you and me."

"Looks like Twilight will have to work on talking to the opposite sex herself." I said. "Ya'll are both hella awkward. Ya'll are gonna be so cute together."

"What? No!" they both shouted, blushing furiously.

"See? Ya'll are birds of a feather! Socially awkward brainiacs that Dash would call nerds. I can't believe ya'll haven't made it official yet."

"I am not a nerd!" said Twilight.

"I totally am." said Conjure. "I'm fine with that. I've been called a nerd, geek, dweeb, poindexter, now that's not one you hear every day, not to mention dork, doofus, and, most common, egghead."

"You are not alone on that one." said Twi. "If Dash has called me an egghead once, she's called me an egghead a thousand times."

"What do you plan on doing when we get to Equestria?" I asked.

"Um… I never thought about it." said Conjure, scratching his head. "I suppose I need a place to stay, and then I'll probably need to get a job."

"You can stay with me and Spike." said Twilight. "Then I can recommend you to Princess Celestia. Your magic is excellent, and I have no doubt that she will accept you as a student. She will get you a pretty decent allowance for food and lodging."

"Or you could come help me out at the farm." I said. "I've been tryin to get some help from a unicorn, but my only unicorn friends were Rarity and Twi, and Granny never let me hire mares."

"Why not?"

"She thought me and Mac would get distracted, and we don't got no room for distractions on Sweet Apple Acres."

"Thanks for the offer, Aj, but I'd much rather study magic. Silver used to tell me that I'd make a good unicorn." he said.

"Fair enough. I couldn't live with myself if I got in between you and your dreams. What do we do now?"

"We dig up Silver, right?" asked Twilight.

"I'll get the shovels."


	9. Applejack's Diary: Entry 3

NAME: Applejack

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Aj

AGE: 22 Years

DIARY ENTRY: #9

NOTABLE CONDITIONS: Workaholism, Separation Anxiety Disorder

STATUS: Healthy

* * *

Conjure handed me a spade, then passed one to Twilight. He took one for himself, gave us all a frown, and pushed into the dirt. Me and Twi joined him, pushing the soil off of the grave. I whistled a little tune and suddenly remembered how depressed this would make Conjure. He asked me to help lighten the mood, and I could definitely do that.

"Just whistle while you work." I sang. "And cheerfully together we can tidy up the place."

"So hum a merry tune. It won't take long when there's a song to help you set the pace." joined Twilight.

"And as you sweep the room, imagine that the broom is someone that you love-"

"And soon you'll find you're dancing to the tune." hummed Conjure, puttin his back into his diggin. We were about halfway done when we finished the song. "When hearts are high, the time will fly so whistle while you work."

"We dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig in our mine the whole day through." started Twilight. "To dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig is what we really like to do."

"It ain't no trick to get rich quick, if you dig with a shovel or a pick." sang Conjure. "In a mine! In a mine! In a mine! Where a million diamonds shine!"

As they dug, Conjure and Twilight started wiggling around, dancing like we were at some sort of party. We dug up Silver in no time at all, a rectangle black box containing our supposed savior. It put things into perspective, I suppose. Princess Celestia said that Silver Rift was really powerful, and we needed him to win, but now he was dead. If we were smart, we would've quit right then. We ain't all that smart.

"Okay, Twi." panted Conjure, wiping sweat from his forehead. "You ready to open this portal?"

"Sure. How exactly does this work?" she asked.

"Well, that's the thing. This spell is not only untested, but it's also improvised and theoretical. This spell does not exist in any spell book, because nobody has ever done it before."

"We can't just do a spell that you created!" exclaimed Twilight. "We need steps, and routine, and regulation, not to mention instructions, guidelines, an idea of what our end product should be."

"I know how much you like playing it by the book, but I need you to trust me. In order to do this spell, I imagine that you'd have to try to do something along the lines of a bigger-on-the-inside spell and a teleportation spell combined."

"I've always hated that term, 'bigger-on-the-inside'." complained Twilight. "There has to be a more dignified name."

"There is." said Conjure. "It's actually called a Dimensional Transcendentalism Charm."

"Bigger-on-the-inside works for me." I said. "I'm pretty sure that you was just speakin in tongues."

"Thank you, Aj. I'm glad somepony appreciates my attempt to make things easier."

"Still, Conjure, I don't know about this." said Twilight. "I was always taught to go by the book, to follow the rules. Magic without discipline and regulation can be catastrophic."

"What could go wrong?" asked Conjure.

"I don't know, but I learned that the souffle isn't the souffle, the souffle is the recipe."

"What does that even mean?"

"She means that you can't just focus and what you want to happen." I said. "You gotta think about what it takes to get to your final product. You gotta have the right steps, or else you'll just have a nasty mess on your hands."

"Well said, Applejack." said Twilight. "I take it Granny Smith taught you that?"

"Another thing she taught me is that sometimes, you just gotta say 'to hell with the recipe' and try somethin new. It took Granny 17 years to perfect the cider recipe, and she never could've done it if she played by the book every time. You gotta try somethin new if you wanna get further in life."

"Listen, we're running out of time." said Conjure. "Fluttershy gave me a few minutes, and she's ready to leave. You have to help me."

Twilight looked at Conjure with a sick look on her face, then she put out her arms and grabbed Conjure's hands. He gripped back and closed his eyes. Green light surrounded his horn, just like the purple light surrounding Twilight's. They stepped back a little and formed a little ring with their arms. Wind began to swirl in between them, makin a tiny twister in their arms. The wind sped up, then stopped unexpectedly, leaving a bright disc of white light.

"Applejack, can you please put Silver in?" asked Conjure. "If I concentrate on anything except this portal, it's going to collapse."

"Yessir." I said. I lifted the casket off of the ground and gently lowered it, hooves first, into the light. The black box was swallowed up by the white light, and Twilight and Conjure fell onto their butts.

"I can't believe that actually worked." said Twilight. "I've never heard of anypony opening a portal further than a couple miles. Forget about a portal to another dimension that nopony knew about."

"Well, thanks." said Conjure. "It's no biggie."

"It is a huge biggie! This is ground-breaking! I've studied a little on the multiverse, and it turns out that we aren't the first to try this. Starswirl the Bearded attempted to transcend to the next universe up, but never even came close. You succeeded where the great Starswirl the Bearded failed! You are a genius!"

"No, it was nothing." he said, blushing slightly.

"It was the opposite of nothing." said Twilight. "You just made this spell up on the fly. How long did it take you to plan this spell and work out the numbers?"

"I started working on it as soon as Commandoshy told us we were leaving."

"In less than 24 hours, you've done something that Starswirl couldn't do in over a hundred years? Something Princess Celestia couldn't do for a thousand years? That's amazing."

"I hate to interrupt this congratulations, but ain't we in a hurry?" I asked. "We should get going, right?"

"Right." said Conjure. "Are you guys ready? Do you want me to leave you alone to say final goodbyes? To the girls, I mean."

"That ain't necessary. We all friends, ain't we?"

"Goodbye, Pinkie." whispered Twilight, threatening to cry. She had been holding back for a while now, but I don't know how much longer she had. "Goodbye, Rariy."

"Bye, girls." said Conjure. "I'm going to miss you two."

"This ain't goodbye." I said, dropping to Pinkie's grave. I pressed my hand against the smooth stone and traced the etching of her name, Pinkamena Diane Pie. I did the same to Rarity, and puffed out a sigh. I reached into my jean pocket and pulled out a sucker, cotton candy flavor. The kind that Pinkie used to eat. I reached into my other pocket and pulled a small, blue gem. I got it right out off of a necklace Rarity gave me.

"If it's not goodbye, then what is it?" asked Twilight.

"Farewell." I answered. I placed the sucker in front of Pinkie's gravestone, and the gem in front of Rarity's. "I'll be seeing ya'll in Heaven, ya hear? Til then, take care of yourselves. I'mma miss ya'll like ya'll are family, cause that's what you are. Later, girls. Hang tight."

"It's time to go." said Conjure. "Say goodbye to the house. I'll have to take it down. All that work, and I can't leave any evidence of it. This spell could change humankind!"

"Which is why it has to go." said Twi. She wiped her face, cleanin the tears that silently fell over her eyes. "Alright. Earth has been nice, although I wish our visit could have been under different circumstances. Come on. Fluttershy is probably waiting for us."

We left the gravesites and walked through the backdoor of our house. I left Conjure and Twi upstairs and slid down to the basement and gathered a few leftover items. Some bullets, a knife, and… To my right was Silver Rift's special blue revolver. I grabbed Lunar and stowed it in my bag, then headed to my room. When I got upstairs, I opened my door and started packing. I picked up some of my clothes and threw them in my backpack, leaving a single, smaller outfit for myself on the bed. I stripped down naked and closed my eyes, concentrating on changing shape. I shrank and melted, felt my coat suck into my skin. My hooves melted and split into toes, my entire body having a slight orange tint. I grabbed my yellow bra from off of my bed and went to put it on, stopping myself for a moment. I thought I heard something, and there's only one "something" I can think of.

"Rainbow Dash, if ya'll don't move your ass, I'mma bury you!" I said, patience with that mare running thin.

"How did you know?" asked Dash's voice.

"I heard something. I'm guessin your wing brushed against somethin."

"Damn! Wingboner! Why have you forsaken me?"

"Where the hell are ya, anyway?" I asked. "Come on out. I don't bite." Suddenly, Rainbow Dash melted out of thin air right in front of me. Her wings were stiff and sticking out towards the back, something she was trying her best to fix.

"Help me out here?" she asked.

"How am I supposed to help you with that?" I asked.

"Well, since you asked…"

"Nevermind. I got an even better question. What in the sam hills are you doin in here? I'm naked!"

"I noticed." she said slyly, her eyes drifting downwards. I quickly threw on my bra and panties, then jumped into my jeans a little more carefully.

"What do you want?" I asked, buttoning up my plaid button-up.

"I need clothes." she said.

"What's wrong with yours?"

"I can't find them! Pinkie took a bunch and hid them, Celestia knows why, and now I can't find them."

"Why not just wear what you got on now?" I asked, slipping my feet into my boots. I didn't really like the human body, but the feel of leather boots on feet just could not be topped.

"When I change, I'm going to shrink a lot. I won't be able to fit this."

"Why not one of them Chameleon Suits?"

"We're trying to avoid suspicion." she said. "I'm pretty hot already, but if I squeeze into a super skin-tight bodysuit? I'll have to beat the ladies off with a stick!"

"Can't ya just look for your clothes?" I asked. I hated sharing my clothes, especially with Dash. They always came back with extra holes and weird stains. she once got mustard on a pair of my socks. How the hell does that happen?

"Listen, Aj, it was Pinkie who hid them!" complained Dash. "Nopony will be able to find those clothes. If I could, I'd ask her where they were, but I can't."

We both got quiet after that. Dashie never seemed to think about what she was about to say until after she said it. It made her look dumb, arrogant, insensitive, and annoying as hell. I reached into my backpack and pulled out a pair of blue jeans, a black shirt, some socks, and a belt. I tossed them to Dash and turned away as she got dressed.

"I'm done." she said. I turned back around and laughed out loud. Rainbow Dash, shrunk down in her human form, looked like a regular workhorse, although the words "Rainbow Dash" and "work" never seemed to go hand-in-hand.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

"Nothin. Except for the fact that you look like you came last place at a rodeo." I snickered.

"Last? I would never come in last. I always come first."

"Good to know, although I don't think that's somethin to be braggin about."

"What? No!" she sputtered. "That's not what I meant!"

"This is every conversation with you is like." I said. I reached into my bag and pulled out two stetson hats, one brown and one black. I tossed the black one to RD and placed the brown one, my favorite hat, on my own head.

"Thanks." said Rainbow, putting hers on. "You never let anypony touch your hats."

"You're the exception." I said. I slung my backpack over my shoulder and left my room, RD right behind me. We slid down the banister downstairs and exited out the front door. Fluttershy, Conjure, War and Twilight, each with their own backpacks, were already waiting for us.

"It's about time." said Fluttershy. "What were you guys doing? You were taking an awfully long time, so I hope you're not too tired. Did you wash your hands? Change your panties?"

"Are we leaving or not?" asked Dashie, a little ticked off. It seemed like she didn't like when anypony but her made jokes about us havin sex. Go figure.

"Twilight is just triple checking the checklist." said War. "Typical."

"Who has the computer?" asked Twilight, reading off a roll of paper.

"I have it, just like the last two times you asked." said Fluttershy.

"And the food?"

"That's me." said War.

"And Celestial?" asked Twi. "I think the princess will want her sword back."

"I'm not giving this back." said Fluttershy, rubbing Silver's sword on her hip. "I've earned this. Speaking of the princess, I hope you have a pen and pad ready, Twilight. I have a few words for Celestia, and you might not know some of them. You might want to take notes."

"That's everything." said Conjure. He pressed his hands against the front door and concentrated. His horn, and the entire house, was surrounded in a bright green light. It rumbled like an earthquake, and the house slowly shook downwards, melting into the ground. In a few minutes, everything was swallowed up by the ground, even the tombstones.

"Damn!" said War. "I forgot my keys!"

"Are you serious?" asked Fluttershy.

"Just trying to lighten up the mood. Lighten up, Commandoshy."

"I'm about to lighten up. As soon as we're home." she said. "Okay. We're going to be moving in together. Twilight has worked out exactly where this portal is and the plan is simple: We run in, and jump through. Not complicated. We're not going to get fancy, we're not going to try to be symbolic or poetic, we're just trying to get home. That's it. So, when we get to the block before, I want everypony to have their fingers on their triggers. We kick in the front door, and then it's weapons free. We carve a way through to the portal and hop through."

"How many changelings are we looking at?" asked War.

"We're not positive." said Twilight. "If we were to guess, between six to seven hundred."

"That ain't that bad." I said. "We could bust through them easy, so long as-"

"Thousand." she corrected.

"Still, seven thousand could be worse." said Dash. "Still doable, and easy, compared to some of our other plans."

"No, you guys misunderstand me. Six to seven hundred thousand. As in seven followed by five zeroes. Almost a million."

"We got our work cut out for us." I said. "But it'll be worth it to get home. I ain't see Applebloom in years, and she probably got so big."

"Well, then. It's time to go." said Fluttershy, a certain fire in her eyes. She was ready to break bad, and we were all behind her on that.

* * *

Fluttershy led us forward through the streets, holding her cellphone in her hand. She was following the map that would lead right to the portal home. We walked through the torn, ruined streets. This was my area, the place I was assigned to blow up. In retrospect, we all should have saw that it was a bad idea. I guess hindsight is always 20/20.

"Look alive, girls." said Fluttershy, stopping us in front of a very tall building. Probably the tallest building in the city. I think that War and Conjure called this place "The Heaven's Impaler", and I could see why. It was huge, taller than any buildings we had in Equestria.

"This is it." said War, rubbing his shotgun. "I finally get to go to Equestria."

"Somepony better warn them." joked Conjure.

"Shut up." ordered Fluttershy. She pushed open the door and brought us into the empty lobby. She walked across the room and called the elevator, which opened up after just a second. We all squeezed in, me nearest to the front and right next to Dash.

"Which floor?" I asked.

"The basement." said Twi. "You and Rainbow should duck. As soon as the door opens, we open fire." I jabbed my thumb at the elevator button and crouched down. Dashie followed and pulled out her two silver-colored pistols. I heard a loud click as everypony cocked and loaded their guns, myself included. I had my finger on the trigger of double-barrel, one of the only things that helped me when I was feeling homesick. I had one just like this at home, to keep the timberwolves away.

_DING!_

The doors opened and I nearly went deaf from the sound of so much gunfire. We sprayed the back wall of the dusty basement with bullets, not looking at what we were shooting at. It took a minute, but soon enough, we realised we wasn't shooting at nothing. The basement was completely deserted, no portal, no changelings, no nothing.

"Well, that was a let-down." I said, stepping out of the elevator. As soon as I was out, I felt a big, cold hand grab my throat. I froze and felt myself get hoisted up, choking as my friends ran to my aid. I ain't even have to look to know who got me, but I shot a glance down anyway. Sure enough, Sombra was grinning at me, laughing like this was the funniest shit he ever seen in his life.

"Hello, dear friends." he laughed. "Whatever brings you here?"

"Let her go!" shouted Dash. Sombra laughed and dropped me to the ground. I scampered backwards, dropping my shotgun to the ground in fear.

"I'm sure you're all in a hurry, so I'll keep things brief." said Sombra. "One of you needs to die here, but the rest of you are free to go. Who dies? Don't all talk at once now, one at a time. No volunteers? I can kill you all right here, but I like this joke of a war we're having. Not even war, it's really just pest control. so, who's it going to be? What about you, Applejack?"

"Don't you dare touch Aj!" shouted Dash. She pointed her guns at Sombra and fired twice. He shrugged the bullets off and laughed.

"Rainbow Dash! Fastest in Equestria, from what I've heard. Is that true?"

"You're damn right."

"Fastest in Equestria. Faster than me?" Sombra rushed forward, too fast for any of us to make sense of. In the blink of an eye, he was behind Dash, holding a steel knife to her neck. He pressed the blade against her neck with a grisly smile.

"Sombra, don't!" said Fluttershy. "I will kill you!"

"It would appear that Rainbow Dash here will be the one to die for you." he said, ignoring Fluttershy. He walked around Dash, keeping the sharp edge against her neck. When he was in front of her, a prime position to slit her throat, I jumped into action. I grabbed my gun off of the floor and jumped over to Sombra. I grabbed his hand, the one holding the knife, yanked it up, and placed the barrel of my shotgun against his stomach.

"You mess with Dash, you mess with me." I said. I pulled the trigger, expecting a loud bang. what I got was a nasty squishing sound and some weird black goo on my face. Sombra grimaced in pain and stepped away from Rainbow.

"Looks like Applejack uncovered a secret." said Sombra. "Shotguns at close range, and with a wide spread, are very effective at dropping men dead. Unfortunately for you, I am more than a man. I am a god. I do not need you five anymore. Applejack has so graciously volunteered to serve my purposes. Say goodbye, Applejack."

"Don't worry bout me, now." I said. "Just focus and we'll all get outta here alive."

"Ha! No." Sombra snapped his fingers, surrounding my friends in black smoke. With a loud pop, like champagne being opened, they disappeared. Sombra looked at me, and I got extremely dizzy. I fell onto the ground, or what I thought was the ground at least. I blinked and I was strapped to a white table, my arms and legs confined by steel cuffs. All of my clothes were gone, and the only other things in the room were a changeling and a cart of medical tools, Needles, surgery knives, you name it.

"Awake, are we?" he asked. "You were out for five minutes. I was supposed to have two hours to prepare, but no time like the present, huh?"

"What's happening?" I asked, squirming and trying to escape.

"You're going to help me, just like your other friend helped me."

"Other friend?" I asked, confused.

"The white unicorn. She kissed me, fed me, and helped test the virus, all at once." he said, pulling a black marker off of the cart. He drew a dotted line on my forehead, the long way across.

"Shut up."

"Come again?"

"If you don't even know her name, you don't deserve to talk bout her. It's mighty disrespectful. You killed her and don't even know her name."

"Then we're in the same boat." he said. "That makes you just as rude as me. I bet you didn't even know that changelings had names."

"Um… I didn't." I said.

"Yeah, we're just things to you, aren't we? Well, mother has taught me to be respectful, so what was her name?"

"Rarity." I said.

"Rarity. I'm Contra, since you didn't ask." he said, pulling more tools from his cart. A small buzzsaw, a tiny knife, an empty needle.

"I'm Applejack, since _you_ didn't ask." I puffed back.

"Well, I'd say it's a pleasure meeting you, but I don't think either of us have much time for lies. Now, what happens next is going to hurt a lot, I bet. You will scream, very loudly. Luckily, I have something to help." He pulled a pair of big, noise-cancelling headphones from the cart and slipped them on his head."

"How is that going to help?" I asked.

"What?" he said with an evil smile. "I can't hear you."

"Asshole!" I shouted.

He took the knife and dragged it across the line, cutting deep into the skin. I grimaced and grunted in pain, squirming even harder to escape. He took the slit he made and widened it with his hands, a scream slipping out of me. He revved up the saw, the blade spinning and whirring loudly, and pressed it against my skull. The noise of my scream and the saw cutting through bone nearly deafened me.

"Let me go, dammit!" I shouted. I wiggled and convulsed, the pain growing to be too much to handle. Contra pushed the skull open and stabbed his needle into my brain, taking some of my blood. He pulled a pair of tweezers out and dug into my head. He ripped a piece of plastic out, attached to a string of bloody wire.

"Oh, that's clever! Genius, for an Equestrian." said Contra. "She attached the chip to a synthetic nerve that feeds right into the brainstem! Then, it receives signals from the rest of the brain, and sends them to a database via radio waves. If it's attached to the brainstem, what happens if I do this?"

He yanked the chip as hard as he could. Pain burst through my head and was stifled instantly. My body fell limp as Contra dropped the bloody chip and wire onto his cart. He placed his hand right over my chest, feeling my heart.

"Oh my. She died. Painfully, too, from what I could tell. Sorry, Applejack. The queen forbade anesthetics. This is a pretty good system. The chips even take data when removed from the brain. Works basically like wi-fi, right Equestrian?"

I felt my thoughts fading, my words slurring. I thought about all my friends, Rainbow Dash, Twi, Fluttershy, my family. Pinkie and Rarity. I felt like I was falling into a deep sleep. I thought of Pinkie and Rarity, how much I miss them, how much I'm going to miss Dash. I love ya, Dashie. Don't forget it. I closed my eyes and let sleep take me at long last.

* * *

NAME: Applejack

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Aj

AGE: 22 Years

DIARY ENTRY: #9

NOTABLE CONDITIONS: Workaholism, Separation Anxiety Disorder

STATUS: Deceased


	10. Rainbow Dash's Diary: Entry 1

NAME: Rainbow Dash

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: RD, Dashie

AGE: 21 years

DIARY ENTRY: #10

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Narcissistic Personality Disorder

STATUS: Healthy

* * *

The smoke surrounding us disappeared, and we were suddenly in an empty field. I could see the city from here, and it was pretty far, but walkable. I threw off my shirt, shifted into pegasus mode, and flapped my wings to take off. Fluttershy grabbed me by the tail and dragged me back to earth.

"What are you doing?" I asked angrily. "I have to save Aj!"

"She's gone!" said Fluttershy, starting to cry. "By the time we get there, they would've dropped her corpse! There's nothing we can do."

"Maybe nothing you can do, but that's because you're shit compared to me! Let me go! I can save her!"

"You can't, Rainbow." said Twilight quietly. "We'll never make it back in there."

"If I wanted advice from an egghead, I'd go to the library, okay? So shut your goddamn mouth and help me save Applejack!"

"Rainbow Dash." said War. "What do you plan on accomplishing by getting yourself killed?"

"I'm not going to die, and neither is she! She's too tough to die to a bitch like Sombra!" I yanked my tail out of Fluttershy's hand and took off again. Conjure teleported up into the air and grabbed my hoof, weighing me down. I wasn't about to let him stop me, though. I kept pushing, dragging him with me. Fluttershy jumped and grabbed at my tail again, missing this time. As she fell forward, she caught it in her teeth and dragged me down.

"Don't you ever, and I mean _ever_, bite my tail!" I shouted. I reared my hoof back and bucked her hard in the face. She fell onto her butt, blood dripping from her nose.

"She said she loved you!" said Twilight, looking down at her phone. I stopped in mid-air and floated down.

"What?"

"Applejack. Her last thought were 'I love you, Dashie. Don't ever forget it'. She's gone, Rainbow. It's in her diary and everything."

"No! No! No, no, no, no, no, no! She's not dead! She can't be dead!" But she had to be. Applejack would never say that. She wouldn't just come out and say it, unless this was her last chance. Applejack was dead. It was impossible, unthinkable, but true.

"Conjure, pull the house back up." said Fluttershy quietly. "War, bring the bags in, please. Twilight, take Dash into town and get her something. Just this once, you can get her a drink or a cigarette, some pot if she wants it. Be back in a few hours. We all need a break, and then we need to grieve. Don't get spotted."

"Come on, Dashie." said Twilight, grabbing my shoulder. I jerked away and sniffed hard to keep the tears back.

"Don't call me Dashie. The only ponies allowed to call me Dashie are dead now." I said.

"Alright, Rainbow Dash. I'll teleport us closer to town, if that's okay." She placed her hand on my shoulder, apparently expecting me to jerk away again. When I didn't, she started casting the teleport spell.

_POP!_

We reappeared in a dirty, dusty, smelly alleyway, completely alone. We shifted to human form and entered the main street. I could tell just by looking that this was downtown, just outside of the ruined area of the city. Just across the street was a bar with a bright red sign. I made my way for it, not waiting for Twilight to catch up. I got to the door and put my hand on the handle, then decided to wait.

"Hey, can you get me a pack of cigarettes?" I asked, pulling out a twenty and handing it to Twi. "I know how much you hate bars and clubs, so can you just pick me up in a little while?"

"Are you sure?" asked Twilight. "I don't want something bad to happen."

"How about this? You bring me in, sit me down and chill for a while. Then, when you see that I'm fine, you can go get me my cigs and just get a breather. Win-win."

Twilight looked at me uneasily, but nodded her head in agreement. We walked into the crowded bar and took a seat at the counter. The bartender came up and asked us what we wanted.

"The strongest whiskey you got." I said. He pulled a clear glass from the shelf behind him and filled it with an amber liquid from the tall, black bottle. He took another glass and went to fill it for Twilight.

"None for me, thanks." she said. He shrugged and moved away to help the other patrons. I took my glass and turned on my stool to survey the crowd. Something bumped my hand, spilling liquor all over my shirt. The girl who bumped me, a smoking hot redhead, looked at me like I ran into her.

"Did I do that?" she asked. "Sorry about that."

"Whatever." I said, turning back to the bar grumpily.

"Can I buy your next one?"

"Why the hell not? I never say no to free liquor." I said.

"Another whiskey for… what did you say your name was?" she asked.

"Rachel, and this is my friend, Tara."

"Tara?" asked Twilight. "Since when did you call me Tara?"

"Nice to meet you. I'm Sarah."

"It's wonderful to meet you, Sarah." said Twilight. "How are you doing?"

"Tara, you remember when I told you that you could leave at any time?" I asked. "Why not now? Since you hate the bar so much."

"Um… Okay. See you later?" She kept her eyes on me her entire way out of the bar, afraid that I was about to do something dumb. That was the plan, after all. The bartender came and refilled my cup, and I told him to fill one up for Sarah.

"Why don't you take a seat here?" I asked, gesturing to my right. "It's hella boring to get shitfaced alone."

"Okay." said Sarah, taking the seat. She took her whiskey and shot it back like a pro.

"Whoa, there. You drink like you fought in a war. What's eating at you?"

"Is it that obvious?" she asked. "Ugh. They say it gets easier with time, but for me, it gets harder."

"Who died?" I asked, taking a swig. This was some strong stuff, almost like Aj's moonshine. I missed her so much already.

"My friend. Well, he was a little more than a friend. It's complicated."

"You liked him but he didn't like you back?" I asked.

"Right on the head." said Sarah. "He's been dead for three years now, but I can't seem to get over it. It sucks." Three years ago. When all of this started. When Silver died, and we were trapped here.

"Three years. A lot of things changed in the last three years." I said vaguely.

"What's your story?"

"I had a friend who died, too. Our relationship was also a little complicated."

"You liked him but he didn't like you?" she tried.

"Nah. I was in love with her, and she was in love with me, but we were too dumb to do anything about it."

"Oh. You're a lesbian?"

"I thought the rainbow hair would've given it away." I laughed. "But, yes. I am a huge fag."

"How long ago did this girl die? If you don't mind me asking."

"About seven minutes ago!"

"And you're out drinking already?" she asked.

"Sarah, my lifestyle is one in which I can't afford to be hung up over death for too long." I said. "I have a few hours, then I'm back to work."

"You're a cop?"

"I'd fail the entrance exam."

"Soldier?"

"You could say that, but not for the government. I don't do well with taking orders."

"So, you're in a gang?" she asked. Geez, this girl asked a lot of questions. It'd be fun to try to shut her up.

"The less you know, the better." I said. "But don't worry. We're not planning any drive-bys, if that's your concern."

"I'm just glad I have someone to talk to. I've been pretty alone since my friend died."

"I don't know a lot about your friend, but he's must've been pretty damn stupid."

"What did you say?"

"I said he was dumb. For not being into you, I mean." I said, gesturing for the bartender to refill. I never did think about what I was saying or how it would make someone feel. I just said it.

"Thanks." said Sarah sarcastically. "A random compliment from a random stranger is just what I needed to get through these hard times."

"I mean it. I don't see how he couldn't want you. I mean, just look at you. You're gorgeous, seem to have a good head on your shoulders, you have the second best body in this bar…"

"Who has the first?" She fell for the trap.

"Your's truly. But, then of course, I shouldn't really count myself." I said, smirking with confidence. "If I joined a sexy-contest, they'd kick me out for being a professional."

"Well, if you're so sexy, how'd you forget your boobs at home?" asked Sarah, sipping her drink. Ha! I liked this girl! Her sarcasm and desperation was just calling out for me.

"Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. Everyone knows that you don't need big tits if you know how to work the tongue. If you don't believe me, I can show you."

"Sorry. Not interested." she laughed. "Maybe get me a little drunker." I waved to the bartender and told him to leave the bottle.

"That can be arranged." I said, licking my lips. She laughed and reached into her pocket, pulling out a pen and piece of scrap paper. She scribbled some numbers on it and handed it to me.

"Maybe next time. I can't even think about being with anyone except Chris." she said.

"Wait, Chris?" I asked. "Chris who died three years ago?"

"That's the one."

"You're Sarah!" I shouted, feeling very dumb.

"Yes, I am. Also, this is a stool that we're sitting on, and that thing in your hand is a glass."

"Shut up. I meant that you're, like, Sarah. _The_ Sarah. Silver's friend Sarah."

"Silver?"

"Um… That's what we called him. Chris, Christian Brookes. He was your friend?"

"You knew him?" she asked.

"Sure did. He was pretty cool. A little obsessed with Fluttershy, and not willing to admit it, but cool nonetheless."

"You watch MLP?"

"You could say it's my life."

"So, you know that you look and sound a lot like rainbow Dash?" she asked.

"Who's Rainbow Dash?" I said, getting up.

"Call me." said Sarah. "Maybe next time you'll get luckier."

"Sorry to tell you, babe, but there's probably not going to be a next time. The thing that killed my friend is coming for me. I'm not even sure if I want to fight it."

I left the bar, leaving a hundred dollars on the table for the bartender. I turned the corner and bumped right into Twilight. I helped her off the floor and kept walking.

"Are you going to tell me what happened in there?" asked Twilight.

"I met a chick who turned out to be Silver's friend." I said, stopping and sitting on the sidewalk. "If I would've known, I wouldn't have tried hitting on her."

"Moving on a bit quick, don't you think?"

"To say 'move on' would imply that there was something to move on from." I said. "Me and Aj were never a thing, so I'm not 'moving on'."

"But still. Applejack just died and you're already trying to fill the hole she left in your heart." said Twilight, looking down on me disapprovingly.

"Twilight, my plan was to get this girl so drunk and make her feel so degraded that she would go down on me in the bathroom. I know you don't have much experience on these things, but that's not exactly romantic. I swear, it was just dirty, meaningless sex that never even happened. Get off my case. Maybe if you ever had some sex, you'd get it."

Twilight sighed and dropped down next to me. I was making things hard for her just because I didn't want to feel. I was never the one to show my feelings, but now it was getting hard to hide them. Before, I could just say something cocky that would make me look like an ass, but now? I can't seem to do anything but seem angry, which isn't even fake. I was very angry. Unbearably angry. And I was taking it out on my friends. I leaned my head over onto Twilight and began to shake as the tears flowed down my face.

"What are we going to do, Twilight?" I asked. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know, Rainbow." she answered, rubbing my head softly. "What I do know is that we're not going to let Applejack die for nothing. We're going to win. We have to win. How could we lose? A couple of genius unicorns, a super-strong Earth pony, a vicious, but admittedly badass, leader, and you. The fastest in Equestria. The mare who's middle name is 'danger'. Somepony who did the impossible Sonic Rainboom, not once, not twice, but three times."

"The most awesome pony to ever live!" I shouted, getting back to my hooves. "Speed and agility to rival the Wonderbolts! Faster than fast, quicker than quick, stronger than strong, and awesomer than awesome!"

"That's the spirit. Now, what is the fastest mare to ever live going to do now?"

"She's gonna pick herself up, dust herself off, and never back down! She's gonna kick ass in the morning and take names in the evening! She came her to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and she's all outta gum! So, now, she has to kick twice as much ass!"

"Calm down a little, Rainbow." said Twilight. "It's great that your confidence is back, but you really shouldn't over-do it."

"Me? Over-do it? Never!" I said. "Maybe you normal ponies over-do it, but Rainbow Dash has no limits! Rainbow Dash sees her breaking point and snaps that bitch in half!"

"Why are you suddenly talking in third person?"

"Because the world can benefit from hearing the name Rainbow Dash over and over, and Rainbow Dash is going to make sure it hears it!"

"How much did you have to drink?" asked Twilight.

"Not enough. Come on, Twi. Let's go home." I said. "I'm ready to get back to work."


	11. Rainbow Dash's Diary: Entry 2

NAME: Rainbow Dash

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: RD, Dashie, Rachel

AGE: 21 years

DIARY ENTRY: #11

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Dysthymia

STATUS: Healthy, Depressed

* * *

Twilight dragged me into an alley and teleported us out. We arrived back to the house, which Conjure had pulled back up. I kicked in the front door and ran through the foyer,past the living room, to the right of the long hallway, and into Fluttershy's office. It was really just an extra living room, but Fluttershy moved a desk in here for her computer and files, just general work stuff. The thing in here I wanted was the mic to the PA. I grabbed it off of Fluttershy's cluttered desk, pressed down on the only button on the thing and brought it to my mouth.

"We got work to do, bitches!" I said. "Let's get to it, okay? The usual place, understand? Let's do this!"

"They're already there, idiot." said Fluttershy, leaning in her doorway. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Just trying to rally the troops, ya know? Raise morale and shit."

"How much did Twilight let you drink?"

"Don't be that way. I'm only a little tipsy. But, hey, I'm better when I'm drunk." I said, licking my lips and winking.

"Are you… no." said Fluttershy. She grabbed me by my hair and dragged me out of her office and into the hallway.

"Ow! That hurts! But I can play rough, too."

"Shut up! We have shit to do!" she complained. I pulled myself away and begrudgingly followed her down the stairs and into the training room, taking a spot next to Twilight and War. Where our war map used to be was now a big ass, and I mean a _big ass_, T.V. This bitch was huge, at least 90 inches. Conjure, a few feet back from this bitchin plasma piece of tech, wiped his forehead and slammed his palms into the ground. His horn began to glow bright, emerald green, and a faint mist surrounded his hands. He grabbed at nothing and raised up, pulling a couch out of nowhere. He looked up triumphantly, then wiped blood from his nose.

"Are you okay?" asked Twilight, rushing forward.

"Don't worry. I mean, bringing the house back, summoning the T.V. and this couch, all with no materials?" said Conjure. "I'm just glad I didn't pop a blood vessel."

"Now if only you could've done this last year for the Super Bowl." said War. "Or the World Cup."

"Since when did you watch soccer?"

"Uh-uh. Futbol. And you don't know my hobbies."

"Is somepony gonna explain why we have the Times Square Jumbotron in our training room?" I asked. "What the hell?"

"Well, we have to watch the news." said Conjure.

"Ha ha! That's funny! Seriously, though, why is the T.V. here?"

"When Conjure brought back the house, there was a note on the door." said Fluttershy. She pulled out a sheet of paper, making me think of Sarah, who so willingly gave me her number. Either I was hotter than I thought, or she was desperate. Very desperate.

"What'd it say?" I asked, throwing my hands up and resting them on my head.

"It says 'Time for The Shadow to step into the light'. He signed it, King Sombra, the Prince of Darkness."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that he's going to come out to the public and make demands." said Conjure. "On the six o'clock news."

"Holy shit, how did you get that from the note?" I asked.

"It's simple, really. 'The Shadow' is obviously Sombra, and the light is public attention. Now, the part that required thinking is the time. It's going to happen 16 minutes into the news."

"Now that is straight bullshit." said War. "No way in hell did you figure that from that letter. He never said shit about a time."

"No, but look at the language he used." said Conjure. "He called himself the Prince of Darkness. Prince. Sombra is a king, or at least, he feels he is. So, why would he call himself a prince? To compare himself to something that strikes fear into the hearts of most everyone. Satan, the Devil, whatever. In some lore, the Devil is known as the Prince of Darkness. Now that he's established the connection between himself and Satan, why would he stop? Sombra loves showing how clever he is. He's going to make his entrance as flashy and poetic as possible, by picking The Devil's Mark, The Number of the Beast."

"Hold on." said War. He wasn't the only one confused. "Wouldn't that mean his demands will be at 7:06? The Number of the Beast is 666, isn't it? 60 minutes to an hour, carry the one, 7:06. Right?"

"Congratulations, Robert, you did first grade math. Have you only read one version of the Bible? 666 is sometimes thought to be a proceeding number, 616 being the original in early versions of the Book of Revelations. Besides, 6:16 is a perfect time. Tons of people will be watching. It's not too early as to have people miss it, but not too late as to have people get bored and leave."

"You have way too much time to work out nerdy, egghead things like this." I said. "All I heard was 'nerd, nerd, nerd, geek, geek, geek, logic!' You're such a dork, Conjure."

"Don't listen to her." said Twilight. "I think that you're really sexy when you're being nerdy." As soon as she said it, her palm reached her forehead with a loud _SMACK!_ She turned to face the wall and kept her eyes as far away from Conjure, who was blushing almost as hard as she was. Me and War were dying in laughter, and even Fluttershy managed a smile.

"And she said…" I panted, gasping for breath. I leaned over on War for support. "She said… Holy shit! That was too good!"

"I thought nothing could top the head thing from the other day!" laughed War. "Dear Christ, that was hilarious!"

"Anyway…" said Conjure, trying to pull attention away from the awkwardness of his situation. "We can prove my theory in a moment. It's 6:15. Fluttershy, if you'd be so kind."

"Got it." said Fluttershy. She grabbed a remote from the couch and turned on the T.V. I dropped onto the couch right next to War. Twilight went to lay on the floor, while Conjure and Fluttershy seemed to rather stand. Fluttershy flipped it to channel six, or channel four, or seven or whatever, and put on the news. The blonde news lady was just about to start talking about sports or some shit when the screen went to static. A moment later and we were looking at a pitch black room, the only light coming from a dark unicorn's eyes. Sombra raised his hands as if asking us to stand, then puffed out air through his nose.

"People of Earth." he growled. "I am King Sombra. Some of you may already know me. You see, I come from a different world than this. A completely different reality. In this wretched world, I am a two-bit antagonist on a show made for small children. Unfortunately for you, this is not the case where I am from. I am here to conquer this world, to enslave it's people, and to have total control. You cannot resist me. It is foolish to even try. I've done some research on this world, this country in particular, and have come to the understanding that you are governed by a single person, called the president, in a single building, called the White House. I would like to turn attention to my associate, who you may also know."

A familiar, slinky figure slithered onto the screen. He stood up straight, cracking his neck and legs. Discord smiled for a minute, then did something I don't think I've ever seen him do before. He got serious. Not, like, "Oh, I just look serious so that this will be fun". He was leering at us, the usual detachment and nonchalance completely gone. He looked ready to kill.

"Discord, would you do the honors?" asked Sombra. Discord snapped his fingers once, then stepped backwards into the shadows. "The White House and everyone inside it has just been incinerated. This is not a hoax. This country is now mine. The rest of the world has two hours to write out a surrender, lest I extend my destruction to the rest of you filth. Now, onto the final piece of business. The rebellion, if you can even call them that. I am referring, of course, to Fluttershy, Conjure, War, Twilight Sparkle, and Rainbow Dash. You will die soon. Not as soon as you'd hope, but soon enough. You will fall. And I will rip this planet apart to find you and to make you suffer. Look at you, with all of your plans and stratagems, none of which have counted for anything. But then, I suppose that makes sense. Man makes his plans, while God just laughs. And I am, indeed, laughing. You may ask for help, all of you, the rebels, the civilians, other countries, but it will amass to nothing! "

"He's not serious." said Conjure. "He… no."

"You may look up to your heavens and pray to your god, but all you will see is his bloodied, bruised corpse tumbling down to Earth, your all powerful being being kicked from his kingdom, from his throne, with only me taking his place. You will look up for forgiveness, but will see nothing but darkness. You may drop to your knees and shout up to me, shout to your god, scream 'help', and I will walk down to this filthy, disgusting, inferior world and whisper 'no'. And, as horror wells in your gut and fear freezes your heart, you will give out one last scream, the scream of thousands upon thousands, millions upon millions of voices, and these voices will be silenced! This is the fate that awaits those who dare defy King Sombra, the King of Darkness! 2 hours. I'll be waiting."

The screen went to static, and we were looking at the same news lady, but this time she looked a little happier with herself. Her piercing green eyes shined through the camera, and she began to laugh, her voice sounding like a few different people with different pitches talking slightly out of synch. She was surrounded in green fire, revealing a black, humanoid beetle, her horn gnarled and grizzled, her teal hair looking like a swamp.

"This is bad." said Twilight. "If Chrysalis is talking, then she has something planned."

"I am Queen Chrysalis, ruler of the changelings." she said. She pulled a green revolver from her lap and fired once to her left and twice to her right, probably killing some news dudes. "I am an associate of King Sombra. What my partner neglected to mention is that your two hour deadline is very strict. A second late and everyone in this country will be slaughtered. One by one, and painfully all the while, my children will remove their disguises and rip your people limb from limb. I would recommend a surrender. They're terribly hungry."

Chrysalis aimed her gun at the camera and fired. The picture sparked and frizzled, dying into blank, grey static. This was bad. Like, very bad. Worst-case-scenario bad.

"Shit!" said Conjure, shooting a blast of energy at the T.V., which exploded into fire and shrapnel. I've never heard him cuss before, which meant that he must've been pissed.

"Conjure!" called Twilight. "Relax."

"Damn it! Shit, shit, shit, shit! He… Hmmm!"

"Even his tantrums are geeky." I said. "What's the big deal? We knew he was coming for us anyway. So he killed some guy in his house, boo-hoo. A little bit of collateral damage."

"Wow, you're really… I don't want to say dumb." said Conjure, rubbing his temples. "You're… unattentive and unknowledgable. the president lives in the White House."

"The president is important, correct?" asked Twilight. "I've seen the name come up before, but my knowledge is admittedly limited."

"Important? Try vital. He's the equivalent of Princess Celestia."

"He raises the sun?" asked Fluttershy.

"Not that literally. He keeps the country running properly. Or at least, he's supposed to." said Conjure.

"Yeah, if we're being honest, they don't do too good of a job at that." said War. "Last couple of guys have sorta ruined this country for years to come."

"Well, not much you can do for a bad leader except wait for them to die." said Twilight. "Then a new one can take his place."

"Actually, we pick a new leader every four years." said Conjure. It seemed explaining this would help calm him down. "A president can serve for a maximum of eight years. After four years, we are given the option to choose someone else who runs. If more people prefer the second guy, he becomes president. If more people prefer the first guy, he stays president. After that second four years, we pick from new guys."

"So, if you don't like these people, or you think they're doing a bad job, why do you vote for them?" asked Fluttershy. "Why not pick someone you do like?"

"Cause humans are fucking idiots." said War.

"What do we do?" asked Twilight.

"Well, humans aren't going to surrender." said Conjure, scratching his head. "Too stubborn. If they're even going to take Sombra seriously, they're going to fight back. I don't even want to think of the casualties that would ensue."

"So, we need a plan." said Fluttershy. "Anypony got any ideas?"

"I have an idea." I said quietly.

"Anypony? Come on, now. We're just brainstorming here. No such thing as a bad plan."

"I have an idea." I said, raising my voice slightly.

"Conjure, what do we-"

"Yo!" I shouted angrily. "I have an idea!"

"Oh." said Fluttershy. "What do you got for me?"

"Why don't we just give up?" I said.

"Well, that's certainly a plan." said Twilight. "You do realise that Sombra is going to kill us as soon as we go in for surrender, right?"

"Not us. The humans. What if we disguised ourselves to look like people of importance, like ambassadors or whatever, then we come in and issue a surrender. Sombra will think we've given up, the humans are safe, and he thinks we've given up. We lull him into a false sense of security, then bam! we get the drop on him."

"That's the shittiest plan I've ever heard." said Fluttershy. "That'll never work."

"What do you have? Since my plan is so dumb, you clearly have a much better plan." I said. "So, let's hear it. What do you got?"

"I don't need to have a plan to tell you that your's is shit."

"Listen, Fluttershy, baby, I know you never asked for this." I said, draping my arm over her. "I know you just got thrown into this war, and you've been doing a good job, for an improvised leader. But, let's face facts. You've led these last three missions, and you got somepony killed by the end of each of them. So, why don't you let someone who hasn't killed half the group work out a plan?"

You could cut the tension with a knife. Fluttershy's face got redder and redder as time went on. She turned and punched the wall, breaking through it and covering her fist in white dust. She yanked her fist from her hand and grabbed me by the collar. My back hit the wall as she threw me and her hand, burning hot, wrapped itself around my neck. War got up and came to my aid, but was stopped when I raised my hand. I deserved this.

"You think I don't know that?" she asked, huffing her hot breath into my face. "You think I forgot that three of my best friends are dead? And you think it escaped me that it was all my fault? I get it, okay? I totally, one hundred percent understand, and I don't need some loser faggot like you reminding me, understand?"

"If you don't need me to remind you, do your job a little better." I mocked. I don't know why I said it. My mouth was just moving and I had no clue what I'd say next. "Do your job, and nopony else will die. I won't have to remind you."

"My job? I do my job. I've been doing my job since Silver died! What have you done? Disobeyed my orders because you feel like you're too damn cool for that! You're cocky, you're hotheaded, and you're just downright stupid! And you wonder why Applejack didn't love you."

I deserved the physical attack. I deserved the beating that she hadn't given yet. I deserved to be given toilet-scrubbing duty for the next month. I did not deserve that sentence. I grabbed Fluttershy's arm and twisted it, pressing her down onto the ground. I couldn't seem to stop myself from enjoying the sounds of her pained grunts and groans as I put my foot on her shoulder, twisting her arm with the goal of ripping it the hell off.

"What did you say to me?" I asked, twisting her arm even more. "What did you know about Applejack? What did you know about us? I never wondered why Applejack didn't love me. I wondered why she did. I know she loved me, but Celestia only knows why. Cause you're right. I'm dumb, I don't listen, I'm useless! Everything you or anypony else has ever said about me is the truth. I am whatever you say I am! I'll never amount to anything. But Applejack managed to see through all of that to find… what? Something worth her time? Something to love? I don't know, but she loved me more than anypony else did."

"Rainbow Dash, I never meant-" started Fluttershy. I jerked her arm once, cutting her off with her own pained yelp.

"Shut up. You do not get to talk to me right now. You think this plan won't work, I think it will. Let's place a bet."

"You care about money?" asked Fluttershy. "We still have a lot of cash from Celestia, and you're about to wager our lives for twenty bucks?"

"Who said anything about cash? You see, you've been too high and mighty lately." I said, stomping on her shoulder. I could hear my friends gasp through Fluttershy moans of pain. "I don't want your money. I want to break you. Something to say 'Screw you and the horse you rode in on'. If this plan works, I want you on your knees, bowing to me, completely useless and obedient. Call me a sadist, but it just feels so good to have a girl down beneath me, feeling utterly degraded and worthless. I want to make sure you know what that feels like."

"What exactly do you have planned?" gasped Fluttershy. The pain was starting to get to her.

"I'll think of something. Just know that you might need some mouthwash afterwards."

I moved my foot off of her shoulder, dropping her arm down to rest at her side. I kicked her once in the ribs and pulled my shirt off. I stripped down my pants, my bra and my panties, all of which Applejack had given me. I kept her hat on, but I was otherwise completely naked. I crouched down and lifted Fluttershy's head by her hair.

"Get a good look, bitch." I said, bringing her face close to my chest. "When we get back from the surrender, this is all you'll see for a few hours." I dropped her back to the ground, picked up Applejack's clothes and turned to scale the stairs.

"Wait." said War. "What if, by some chance, Fluttershy wins?"

"We'll all be dead if this plan doesn't work. So, you better pray to God that I get to make Fluttershy my bitch, or else we'll be reunited with our girls a little too soon."


	12. Rainbow Dash's Diary: Entry 3

NAME: Rainbow Dash

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: RD, Dashie, Rachel

AGE: 21 years

DIARY ENTRY: #12

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Dysthymia

STATUS: Healthy, Depressed

* * *

I fell onto my bed and put Applejack's clothes on my dresser. I took off the hat and placed it on my stomach, thinking about her. How much I missed her. She danced around in my head, followed by what Fluttershy said. It hurt more than anything else she could have possibly done to me. I wanted to cry, but I managed to choke the tears back. This was going too far, this joke we called a fight. It's time we called quits. Forget what Sombra did to our friends. Just look at what he did to us. I nearly broke Fluttershy's arm. She was in pain, and I made it happen. Worst part about it? I liked it. No, that's not quite true. I needed it. For the first time in what seemed like forever, I finally knew that I was doing something. I'm losing it. I hurt my oldest friend, and loved every second of it.

_KNOCK!  
KNOCK!_

"Yeah, whatever." I said. I expected it to be Fluttershy, coming for her revenge, but it was Conjure who opened the door. He stepped in, then turned to look away from me.

"Um… sorry." he said. I could see him blushing from here. "I'll wait until you get some clothes on."

"It's fine. It's more comfortable this way. What do you want?" I asked. He turned to face me, keeping his eyes as far from my body as possible.

"Well, I just wanted to say that your plan is good. Brilliant, in fact. I don't know how much it counts for, but you're pretty resourceful. Not many people can make surrender a good thing."

"Thanks, nerd. That means a lot, coming from you." I said. "When do we do it? And how? I was winging it when I came up with that little plan, and I haven't the foggiest idea as to how we're actually going to do it."

"Each of us are going to be made to look like a world leader. We're going to infiltrate the capital of each of the big countries, China, Russia, et cetera, and incapacitate the leaders. Then, we're going to surrender in their name, and place the memory of us doing it into their heads."

"That way, they'll think they did it." I said, noticing Conjure's eyes drift downwards. "My eyes are up here, honey."

"It would help a lot if you weren't naked." he complained. I sighed and went into my top drawer and pulled out two heart-shaped pasties, which I quickly slapped to my nipples. I dove back into what I called my naughty drawer and got out the tightest, most revealing red panties I owned. I slipped into them and bent over my bed, just to watch Conjure squirm.

"Better?" I asked, licking my lips and shaking my hips.

"Worse, but I think you knew that when you did it." said Conjure, blushing red.

"I won't tell Twilight if you won't."

"Why is your room so blank?" asked Conjure, completely ignoring my comment. "How come you don't have any posters or anything? Just a dresser-drawer? Where is everything?"

"I don't have anything to hang on the walls." I said, shrugging my shoulders. "Besides, that's really pointless. This is a room made for me to sleep in, and if I'm going to sleep, I can't look at the stuff I just wasted precious time hanging on my walls."

"But no books? No Wonderbolts posters? Nothing with your face on it?" he asked. "God knows we have a lot of Rainbow Dash pony-merch on the market."

"You're right! How could I have possibly forgotten to grab my posters from home when I had no idea I was leaving?" I said, spilling out with sarcasm. "I mean, it's not like Princess Celestia dragged us here without warning. Oh wait, that's exactly what happened! So, I apologize if my room is too boring for you, oh great Lord of the Eggheads."

"No wonder you were Silver's favorite." laughed Conjure. "Your nonchalance, hot-blood and detachment complimented his cynical sarcasm nicely. It's quite fascinating to compare you two. If I gave Silver half a glass of water, he'll say it's half empty. I give you half a glass, you say you didn't need the other half anyway. To you, it's not half full or half empty. It's just… half."

"That's interesting." I said. "Please, continue."

"If you're bored, you could just say so, Rainbow Dash." he said. "You don't have to be sarcastic."

"No, I'm serious. I'm intrigued. I want to know more about how Silver looked at the world. I didn't get much time to learn about him."

"Well, if you're serious…" said Conjure. He inhaled deeply and began his lecture. "Silver was always the type of person to, with good reason, assume the worst in people before actually meeting them. Now, if I were to guess, this is a deep-rooted problem that started way back-"

"NERD!" I shouted.

"And, there it is. I knew it. Come on, Dash. I have to figure out who I'm going to make you pose as and what to have you say."

"Ready when you are. Do you think it'll throw Fluttershy off if I come down like this?" I asked. "Or maybe I should have a sprig of mistletoe right at my bellybutton."

"It's not christmas, but if it was, that'd be pretty funny. Speaking of Fluttershy, you're not actually going to… you know? Make her… do whatever it is you want her to do?"

"I might, I might not." I said. "If she hops down off of her high horse, it won't have the same impact, so it's a possibility. I'm not going to apologize. She had it coming."

"Rainbow, I don't want to make you angry. I swear, I don't." said conjure, putting his hands up. "That's the last thing on a long, long list of things I want to do. But, don't you think you deserved that, at least a little? You pushed her, and she shoved back. Don't you think you were asking for it? Please don't kill me."

"Did I deserve that?" I asked angrily. "Let me ask you a question. Do you deserve to have one of the last things in your life worth anything ripped from your hands? What if I came out and slaughtered all of your friends, all of your family, destroyed all of your property, stole the clothes off of your back, leaving you with only one person in your life who you know cares for you? What if, after all that, I ripped that person from you too? Would you deserve it? Then, I come in and spit on their grave. How would that make you feel?"

"I hope I never have to find out." he said.

"I'll write a book so you can find out for yourself." I puffed. "Now beat it. I gotta put some clothes on."

* * *

When I had Aj's clothes back on, I slid downstairs to the basement. I sat in wait, the others still getting ready. I took off the hat and sniffed it deeply, trying to cling to something, anything that reminded me of Applejack. The hat smelled sweaty, like she just got back from a hard day in the orchard. Sweet Celestia, I missed her so much. I didn't have much time to think about her, because Conjure, Fluttershy, Twilight, and War were downstairs within two minutes. Twilight handed out packets, at least ten pages.

"Is this a surrender or a screenplay?" I asked.

"Only the first couple of pages are of use." said Twilight. "I gave you thirteen, with vital information on the first four and gibberish on the rest. Studies show that people take documents consisting of either thirteen, twenty-seven, or fifty-six pages more seriously than a document of any other number of pages. We'll trick people's subconscious into believing that we're the real deal."

"Twilight will be the Prime Minister of the United Kingdoms," listed Conjure. "War will be president of Russia, Commandoshy will be the French president, RD will be posing as the leader of China, and I will be Prime Minister of Japan. Any questions?"

"I got one." said War. "How are we going to make this convincing? Let's look at this for a moment. Twilight is good, because they speak English in the UK and I'm Russian, so I know the language fairly well."

"Point being?" asked Twilight.

"Well, let me finish. I know that Conjure had to learn some Japanese before his trip there a few years back, but what about Rainbow and Fluttershy? Maybe, just maybe, Fluttershy can speak the language of love, but I'll be damned if RD knows Chinese!"

"No sweat." said Conjure. "Our disguises will include a Translation Nexus. It will reach into our heads, catch our words before we say it, and translate it to the national language. Dash will be able to speak perfect Chinese without even trying."

"Cool. So, we just knock out the leaders, and…" I asked. "What then?" Conjure reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of cloth, folded over and over into a small square. He tossed it to me, then distributed one to each of the other members.

"Knock them out and cover them with this cloth." he said. "They'll disappear from view. Twilight will give you the Mental Syringe."

"Mental Syringe?" said Fluttershy. "Sounds dangerous."

"It's just a name." promised Twilight, handing out small, plastic balls. "Press this against their foreheads when you go to take off the cloth. They'll think they surrendered, then the shock made them pass out. They'll be fine."

"What are our names?" I asked. "I don't know China, or their leader."

"Rainbow Dash, become comfortable with the name Chen Li Xiao." said Conjure. "Twilight, you are Sarah Jones Smith. War is Ivan Golovin."

"Do I have to be Ivan?" asked War. "I hate the name. Ivan."

"Yes. That's the president's name, and I can't change it. Moving on, Fluttershy is now known as Fleur Isabelle Victoire. As for me, I'm Seiko Akira. We good?"

"I suppose." said Twilight. "Are you ready for the cosmetic changes?" Conjure nodded and Mr. and Mrs. Egghead went to work making us look totally different. Conjure's horn-light passed over me and I felt my skin melt and reform, my hair receding, my shoulders broadening. I felt some parts disappear, and some parts came from nowhere. By the time they were done, I was unrecognizable. First off, I was bald. Not hot at all. I've tried the short hair thing, and that was okay, but I was bald. Like, Britney Spears bald. No, like old Chinese man bald. To my left was a woman with bright blue eyes and auburn hair, her cheekbones high and the bags beneath her eyes low. To my right was a tall, muscular white guy, his hairline receding and his eyes pale green. His face was covered in sunspots and wrinkles. Even our clothes changed. We were all in serious business suits.

"Whoa." said the guy, with a thick Russian accent. War. "This is bizarre."

"You said it." said the woman, obviously now Fluttershy. Her accent was just as thick, but French.

"You did a good job." I said, hearing my ugly, old Chinese voice. "What about you two?"

"Already done." said a new voice. Twilight had changed into a tall, hazel eyed woman with a messed up set of teeth and a huge, hairy mole on her nose. She was the definition of the Wicked Witch of the West, or East, in this case. Snaggletoothed, wrinkle-faced, and magic? All she needed was to be green. To her side was a short, portly Asian man, hair as black as his eyes.

"Now, we should meet back within two hours." said Conjure. "I'll hand out the teleportation pills in a moment. Now, can we all just take a moment to appreciate the difficulty of the magic that me and Twi had to do to pull this off?"

"So, Fluttershy, still think this plan is a bust?" I taunted. "You know, if you admit that this could work, I'll call the bet off."

"So, I can either eat my words or eat your crotch?" she asked. "Fine. You were right."

"Our genius is wasted here, Twilight." sighed Conjure.

"Being the smartest in the group is thankless work." she agreed. "Ugh! I hate these teeth!"

"Sorry, Twilight. I had to be one hundred percent authentic." said Conjure. "Don't worry. In two hours we'll be able to see your beautiful face again."

The room got quiet, nopony really daring to even laugh. I was starting to think that either they were together, or they had a mental condition that just made them say how they felt.

"Is the facepalm even necessary at this point?" asked Conjure.

"Nope." said War. "It's sort of implied."

"It's time to go. Here." said Conjure. He reached into his pocket and pulled out five small, white tablets, divided down the middle. He handed one to each of us and kept one for himself.

"Break off the top and swallow it." said Twilight. "It'll put you in place. When you're done, pop the other one. It'll teleport you back here. Good luck, everypony."

I looked to each of my friends and broke the top half of the pill off in my hand. I swallowed it, gave a nod of farewell, and felt the magic flow through me. My skin began to vibrate and sputter, then it stopped suddenly. I was in a different place, a glamorous, golden-floored palace. If Rarity was here, she'd be having kittens. Every surface gave a glimmering shine, as if there was someone waxing the floor behind everypony's steps. I turned around and bumped into a man, a man who looked just like me. He looked at me in shock, and I used that moment of surprise to punch him in the jaw, knocking him to the ground. I jumped on top of him and put him into a headlock, covering his mouth with the other hand. I tightened my hold, feeling him fall limp in my arms. I dropped him and threw the sheet over him. As soon as he was covered, he vanished from view completely. It'd be a bitch trying to find him again, but I'd cross that bridge when I got to it. I dusted myself off and adjusted my suit jacket, trying to look like the dignified president that I just knocked unconscious. I scanned the floor, looking for an exit. I found one towards my left and took off for it. I got to it and began to travel through the deep red hallway, reaching the exit to the outside. At the mouth of the tunnel were two guards with assault rifles. I turned quickly to head the other way, but was stopped by one of them.

"Mr. President?" asked one, his voice deep and growling. "With respect, sir, shouldn't you be heading out to give your address?" Oh shit. Had to lie, had to lie.

"That precisely why I'm here." I said, praying that Conjure's Translation Whatever was working. "Your names?"

"Zhou." said one, saluting.

"Hu." said the other, also saluting. His voice was different. It seemed higher pitched.

"Just as I thought. There has been a change of plan." I lied. "You two are now assigned with escorting me to the address."

"With all due respect, Mr. President, the podium is right outside." said Zhou. "Is it really necessary to-"

"Yes! Let's go. Now." I said, stepping past them. They walked with me, one on each side, out of the palace and into the shining, blistering sun. I took to the podium, nearly vomiting from stagefright. This performance would determine if thousands would live, maybe millions. The hundreds of people standing before me below my elevated stage were not helping. I cleared my throat and looked down at the papers Twilight gave me. I raised my hands to call for silence, which I didn't have to do. If they were talking before I came out here, they sure stopped quick.

"People of China." I said. "These are, indeed, troubling times. We are being attacked, being conquered. We are people of China, and we have our honor, but I fear that the casualties will be far too great. So, I, Chen Li Xiao, president of China, hereby issue to King Sombra a formal surrender, under the conditions that my citizens are not harmed."

I felt something hard and metal touch the side of my head and heard the entirety of the crowd before me scream in terror. I had no time to react before I heard a deafening _BOOM!_ and felt a huge, unbearable spike of pain fly through my head. Just as quick as the pain arrived did it stop, and I lost all feeling and control of my body. I fell into a poll of my own blood, seeing nothing more than the wood of my podium. Something lifted my body from the floor and raised it for the crowd to see. I heard a familiar, growling laugh, and realised who Zhou was.

"Bow before King Sombra!" he shouted, shooting his pistol into the air. "All of the world shall bow to me! This, in my hand, is a rebel posing as your president. This is what happens when you defy the King of Shadows!"

"Sombra, you made your point." said "Hu", revealing her true form of Queen Chrysalis. "Let's go. Quit while we're ahead."

"But I am always ahead, Chrysalis." he laughed. "Do you not understand? This world is now mine to control! They shall bow to me or be slaughtered by the hundreds. Look at them, look how they bow before me! This is true power. Divine power. The power of a god, striking fear into all who see me. They shall bow!"

"What do we do with the Equestrian?" she asked.

"Post her corpse on a building, somewhere the rest of them can see." said Sombra. "Then burn it. Make sure they can see it, smell it if possible. I want them scared, I want them depressed, and I want them reckless. Make it happen."

My mind started fading. I started to forget things, important things. My birthday, my mom's name. I remember Applejack. I miss Applejack. She's got a spot saved for me up there. Fluttershy… I'm sorry. I'm going to miss you. My thoughts clouded more and more until I forgot my name. My mind shut and I couldn't muster another thought, nothing besides "Sorry, Fluttershy".

* * *

NAME: Rainbow Dash

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: RD, Dashie, Rachel, Chen Li Xiao

AGE: 21 years

DIARY ENTRY: #12

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Dysthymia

STATUS: Deceased


	13. War's Diary: Entry 1

NAME: Robert Thompson

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: War Horse, Ivan Golovin, The Black Death

AGE: 23 years

DIARY ENTRY: #13

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Dyslexia, Intermittent Explosive Disorder

STATUS: Healthy

* * *

I sat in Pinkie's old bedroom with me feet kicked up on her computer desk. I missed Pinkie a lot. In fact, that's the only thing keeping me with Fluttershy and the others. Well, Conjure does help, but not enough to make me want to stick around. I'm just here for my revenge. But then Fluttershy sent me to my room and I lost my shit. I broke her staircase by slamming my new hammer into it. The reason why being my condition. Conjure called it Intermittent Explosive Disorder. He gave me some bullshit medical bullshit, but it basically means that I get really angry, really fast, and often really unnecessary. My rage will sometimes go overboard, like that one time in school when I broke a locker because I got a D on a test. In my defense, I knew the subject matter and I deserved at least a C-. I got suspended for three weeks. I feel like the school board should just be thankful that I didn't break the _teacher_, but that's ancient history. What was I talking about? Oh right. I was mad.

"Who does this bitch think she is?" I asked nopony. I loved being able to say nopony and somepony and everypony. And the horse jokes are fantastic. I always felt that pony puns were the glue that held the brony community stable. Get it?

"War, to the training room." said Fluttershy's voice, vibrating through the walls. "Try not to break shit."

I got to my feet and shifted into pony form, throwing my hammer over my shoulder. My Chameleon Armor sort of stretched to fit me, which was good. I was pretty big already, and turning into a stallion only made me taller, broader, and more muscular. I left Pinkie's room, which I sort of commandeered since I got here. I slid down the banister of the newly fixed stairs and jumped off into the basement, the training room with our weapons and targets. Fluttershy was sitting at the war map near the middle of the room, bags under her eyes and tears rolling down her cheeks. I almost felt bad for her. Almost.

"What?" I asked gruffly, thinking of what to call my new hammer. I was leaning towards Mjolnir, but Norse mythology? Pretty overdone, plus I don't want to have to compete with Thor and Odin.

"T-time for a b-briefing." she stuttered. "First off, Rainbow Dash is dead. Sombra popped her in the head."

"And then there were four." I whispered. Out loud, I said, "What now?"

"Me and Twilight are going to go ape-shit with these diaries." she said, regaining some of her composure. "She's even looking into a way to create a temporary hive-mind, so that we'll all share thoughts. But I really feel like we should talk about Dash. Don't judge her, because it wasn't her fault. As I'm sure you've noticed, Sombra had already killed Ivan Golovin."

"Yeah." I said. "Slippery bastard is always just one step ahead. He killed all of the leaders before we even got there."

"His last stop was China, and RD gave him a way to scare people." explained Fluttershy. "Us included. Her corpse is hanging about halfway up the Heaven's Impaler, burning. It's also being broadcasted to every channel, 24/7. It's disgusting."

"We'll make sure the same is done to him, right?" I asked. Fluttershy smiled a little, then fell back into her somber demeanor. Dear God, I think Conjure did something to me when he put my chip in. I'm using such big words that I didn't even know that I knew.

"I already had Twi and Conjure down here, and you're last." she continued. "I need to know of any and all strengths and weaknesses you have. Don't bullshit me here. This is important. If I don't have every little piece of data possible, somepony's gonna slip thinking that you have them, and they're going to die. So, lay it on me."

"I can't read very well." I said. She looked confused, but held her tongue, probably swallowing down the "I knew that" or the "I'm shocked that you can read at all'.

"You mean, like, you don't know the letters?"

"I'm dyslexic. I mix letters up in my head. Sometimes I'll see the lowercase letter 'd' as the lowercase letter 'b', 'm' as 'w' and sometimes, if my brain really wants to screw me over, it'll completely reverse the word or shuffle the sentences out of order."

"Anything else?" she asked.

"Well, I'm strong but I don't deal well under pressure." I said. "I can be pretty clever if I have time to think. I've read a lot on war strategies over the years, and I can take an ass-whooping. I'm also not afraid of dying, so I'll sacrifice myself if need be."

"As much as I want you out of my mane, I don't think that'll be necessary." said Fluttershy. "What about special abilities? Magic of some kind? Maybe you can read minds or some bullshit."

"I have a few skills that I call Team Buffs." I said. I've shown her one, but I did like to brag about my magic. "There's Battlecry, which you should already know. Everyone affected has their physical strength tripled. Then, I have a few Buffs in the works. Two in particular, Vitality and Steelskin."

"Vitality?" snorted Fluttershy. "Sounds dumb. But that's to be expected, seeing as it's your power."

"It was either 'Vitality' or 'Healing Factor'. I went with Vitality because Healing Factor is Wolverine's super power, and I don't want to get sued when we're famous for saving the world, especially not for something dumb like copyright infringement."

"What does it do, moron?"

"It heals any injury within reason." I said. Fluttershy leaned forward, apparently interested.

"Define reason." she said. "What exactly can it fix?"

"Anything, so long as it doesn't damage the brain. A knife in the lungs, a slit throat, anything like that. The person also has to be alive for this to work. I can't seem to work out the necromancy Buff, but if you give me time…"

"Bullshit. You do not study necromancy."

"I dabble. But the last Buff is Steelskin." I said excitedly. "I'd rather demonstrate this one, because the explanation is boring, but the demo is freaking epic. I need a knife."

Fluttershy pulled a long, steel knife from under the table, almost as if expecting to have to use it. Probably just paranoid. I mean, most of her friends are dead now, so I don't blame her for sleeping with a knife.

"Here goes." I said with a smile. I took the knife from Fluttershy and inhaled deeply through my nose. My skin and eyes began to glow black, my blood vibrating and my skin shaking slightly. So slightly that only those with a trained eye and an idea of what they were looking for could see. I placed my hand onto the table and stabbed at it with the knife. The steel of the blade bent and shipped as it hit my skin, not even scratching the surface of my hand.

"I'm billing you for that knife." said Fluttershy as my skin and eyes returned to normal. "Any downsides to these?"

"Yeah, and they're pretty big." I admitted. "Battlecry will make you mad, sort of like bloodlust. If someone crosses you, you'll beat the shit out of that person, friend or foe. Vitality is no good right now, because it paralyzes everyone affected."

"What? How?" she asked.

"I'm not positive, but I think that the sudden rush of magic scars your nerves. It's not permanent, because Vitality actually starts to heal the nerves on it's way out. But you'll be a veggie for a while. It could be anywhere from a couple minutes to a couple hours, depending on the injury."

"So, not something we can use in the heat of battle. What about Steelskin?" In answer, I pressed my thumb lightly against my palm. My finger fell into my skin, spurting a trickle of blood onto the table. I began to glow green as Vitality went to work healing my hand. I felt all feeling in that arm disappear completely.

"Makes you rip like wet paper-mache afterwards." I stated. "I would recommend only using that in the biggest of emergencies. That's about it."

"Good, good." said Commandoshy, rubbing her temples. "This stuff is going to be helpful."

"I'm not as useless as you'd think, huh?" I asked, trying to tease an argument out of her.

"I guess not. You're still as ugly, though."

"Hey, Fluttershy. You okay?"

"What?" she said. "I'm fine. What do you want?"

"You sure? You seem really shaken up. I know it's not really my place, but Rainbow Dash wouldn't want you to fuck up on her behalf."

"You're right. It's not your place. I appreciate the concern, but I'm fine." she lied. "I don't know what made you think otherwise."

"You stuttered when I first got down here, and I can still see the marks from your tears." I said. "You didn't bitch about the stairs, you were way too nice to me, and you kept your insults to a minimum. Somethings wrong."

"I'm fine. Just stressed." she sighed. "I've known RD longer than I've known any of the girls."

"She's the only reason you left Cloudsdale, right?" I remembered the story from that one episode in the first season, "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", I think.

"Yeah. She saved my ass more than once up there, too. Saved me from bullies and just being lonely. My best friend, really. Besides Angel, I guess, but I can't really group a rabbit with the rest of my friends."

"You know what you need?" I asked. "You need a nice, hot meal. I'll cook for you, if you want."

"Thanks, but I don't care much for poison." said Fluttershy, shooing me away. "Maybe you can cook for Sombra, kill him like that."

"I can cook! Ask Conjure! I've cooked for him and Mom before, back before all of this."

"What do you cook? T-bone?"

"I'm a vegetarian. I can make some of the best borscht and pierogi in the states." I bragged. "Just give me a few hours to make it, and I'll have you begging for more."

"You can cook?" she asked, still not a believer.

"Da. I can cook pretty much anything vegetarian, but I specialize in dishes from Russia and other places in Europe. I'll go shopping, to prove it to you."

"Don't die." she said. "What the hell?!" She jumped to her hooves and drew her knife. I turned behind me and grabbed my hammer, preparing for battle. A single changeling strolled down the stairs with a cardboard box in his hands, about the size of a shoebox.

"I do not wish to fight." he claimed. "King Sombra has sent me here with a gift."

"Stay right there." I said. "What gift could Sombra possibly give us?"

"War, are you dumb?" asked Fluttershy. "Wait, wrong question. How dumb are you?"

The changeling levitated the box towards me, floating it right into my hands. I lifted the lid and peered into it. Inside the box was a patch of furry blue skin. A tri-colored lightning bolt, striking from a cloud marked the skin, and it had a rotten stench to it. There was more in the box. Stacked neatly underneath Rainbow's Cutie Mark was Applejack's, Rarity's, and… A patch of pink skin with three little balloons on it. Three balloons, two blue and the center one yellow. I dropped the box and gripped my hammer in my right hand. I felt my blood heat up and my skin began to glow red. My fingers bent into the steel shaft of… Mjolnir. Screw it! I'm calling it Mjolnir now! My red skin suddenly burst into blue, a new thing for me. I took a step towards the changeling, but found myself right behind him. I turned and grabbed the little bastard, raising him above my head.

"Give me one good reason to not smash your skull in with my bare hands!" I bellowed.

"War, just-" began Fluttershy.

"Shut up! Just shut up! Try to stop me and you're next!"

"If it means anything, I didn't know what was in the box." said the changeling, squirming to free himself from my iron grip. "If you stand by your morals, you won't punish me. I didn't know, and I didn't attack you."

I exhaled a little and loosened my grip on the changeling. He was right. He was just following orders, I guess. It wasn't totally his fault. From what I gathered, he has no choice but to follow orders. I know better than anyone what it's like for people to expect you to be violent and evil.

"Then again, I don't disagree with it." said the changeling. "It was quite a successful plan, if he did what I think he did."

"That's it!" I roared. I squeezed his neck with all my might, my fingers melting into his neck like butter. Green blood spewed onto my chest, on my arms and coating my fingers which were passing through his neck completely. I gripped hard and yanked, ripping out a string of blackish-purple flesh. I guess it was his vocal chords. The changeling dropped onto the floor, right at my hooves. I raised my hoof and stomped on his head hard, splattering it into black fragments and blackened bits. I stomped the bloody, gorey pile again and again and again and again and again! I grabbed Mjolnir and brought it down on what was left of that bastards head! Die! Die! Die! DIE!

"War! Stop!" shouted Fluttershy, grabbing my elbow. I lost my shit and grabbed her by the neck.

"NO!" I shouted angrily. "No!"

"War, please. I'm begging you." she pleaded, closing her eyes in fear. "Please don't hurt me."

"Hey!" called a voice, somepony I knew. I couldn't really tell who it was, but it didn't matter. "Let her go!"

"The only way I'd let her go is if we were hanging over a vat of acid!" I shouted. I dropped Mjolnir and reared my fist back. I rocketed it forward, my fist stopping just a few inches from her nose. Fluttershy opened her eyes, just as shocked as I was to see light surrounding my fist, an odd mix of purple and green. I didn't have to turn to realize who screamed at me to stop. I exhaled deeply and lowered Fluttershy to the ground. She scuttled backwards, gripping at her neck.

"Thanks for the help, Twilight." said Conjure. "That punch would've broke through my spell."

"No problem. Why don't you deal with War while I clean this up?" said Twilight, inching past me. I threw my hands up and let Isaiah lead me out of the room.

"You'll have to wait for your soup, Fluttershy." I grunted. "I shouldn't cook like this."

I left with Conjure, following him through the halls of the house and to a room that I can't remember being in before. As soon as he opened the door, I knew whose room it was. Posters for a band, Tears of Plague, covered most of the left wall. On the nightstand was Silver's emergency glasses, specs he only wore when he lost his contacts. Something we've only seen once or twice.

"What did you bring me here for?" I asked. Conjure snapped his fingers and the room began to shift, or at least, the left side did. It expanded into a big chamber, with a bench press and dumbbells, a pull-up bar and a treadmill. He went into a mini-fridge right next to Silver's old bed and handed me a bottle of water. I smiled slightly and got onto the bench press.

"Are you gonna spot me or what?" I asked. "What weights are these, anyway?"

"Twi said you couldn't bench nine hundred." he said.

"Nine hundred pounds?"

"Kilograms, sorry. Metric system is a tough one to shake."

"How many reps?" I asked.

"Ten sets of ten reps, with a water break in between each set." said Conjure with a smirk.

"Challenge accepted. I doubt I even need a water break."


	14. War's Diary: Entry 2

NAME: Robert Thompson

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: War Horse, Ivan Golovin, The Black Death

AGE: 23 years

DIARY ENTRY: #14

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Dyslexia, Intermittent Explosive Disorder

STATUS: Healthy

* * *

I dropped my barbell down, finished with my tenth set. My skin was glistening with sweat, and I was glad I thought to shift back into human form. Sweaty fur has a terrible mildew smell. Made me want to puke.

"Nice." said Conjure. "Twi owes me five bucks!"

"Only five?" I asked. "You couldn't talk her up for more?"

"I think, somewhere deep down, she knew you could do it. But what's up with you? What was that blue glow on you earlier?"

"No idea. I'm not even sure what it did." I said, thinking back.

"You moved like lightning. Twenty feet in a fraction of a fraction of a second." he said. "It was amazing. I've never seen anypony move so fast in my life."

"Now, if only I could replicate that." I puffed. "That'd be a nice Buff to have. Man, that was crazy."

"You want to talk about it?"

"Yes, actually. I need your help. What do you think Sombra was trying to do?"

"What do you mean?" asked Conjure.

"Why would he send us a box with our friends' Cutie Marks?" I said. "What was his goal?"

"Remind us that they're dead?"

"No, he wouldn't go through the trouble. We don't need to be reminded of that."

"Maybe it's to make us feel guilty." said Conjure. Clever, but I doubted it.

"I don't think Sombra has a concept of survivor's guilt." I said, racking my brain.

"Fear?"

"Nope. This was too slow, too delayed. Fear has to be more immediate. He's burning Dash's corpse to try and scare us, but sending Pinkie's Cutie Mark? That would've been scary when she actually died. It's too late now."

"What do you think?" asked Conjure.

"I think he was trying to piss me off. Make me and the others so angry that we rush at him and make mistakes. To cause fighting between us and just general, all around rage."

"He obviously succeeded. What are you going to do about it?"

"Give him what he wants. I'm going to to walk in and attack him relentlessly. He's going to wish he didn't do that." I said. "I'm packing my bags and hitting Sombra where it hurts, which will be everywhere if I got my hands on him."

"What? You can't leave!" exclaimed Conjure.

"Why not?"

"Cause you can't! What type of question is that? If we can't beat Sombra, Chrysalis, and Discord together, what makes you think you can do it alone?"

"What makes you think I'm trying to? Chrysalis hasn't done anything to me and I doubt Discord knew that he would kill Pinkie. All of my problems right now stem from Sombra."

"All of your problems stem from insanity!" he said. "I won't allow it."

"How are you going to stop me?" I asked.

"I'll tell Fluttershy."

"You mean that little bitch that I almost choked to death an hour ago?"

"I'll steal your clothes." he tried.

"I don't have an issue going nude." I said.

"Um…" Conjure was out of ideas, which is to be expected. It's hard to change my mind. Suddenly, his face lit up, like something came to him. "I'll fight you!"

"You'll fight me?" I chuckled. "You sure? I don't mean to offend you, but I could break your neck before you could scuff my shoes. You're a weak little bitch compared to me. No offence."

"Just saying 'no offence' doesn't actually remove any offence." said Conjure. "Besides, I could easily take you on."

"Is that so? With what?"

"Well, when it comes to strength, you got me beat. But I'm much, much, much smarter than you." said Conjure. Then, to add insult to injury, he added, "No offence."

"Fine. We'll fight, no holds barred." I said. "Iron Man Match. We fight until one of us quits. If I win, I go. If you win, I'll shut up and follow orders. Deal?"

"Let's go, then. I have an arena set up and everything." said Conjure. His horn began to glow green, and we were surrounded in emerald haze.

_POP!_

We reappeared in a big, round room, with a circle painted onto the floor. One half of the circle was red, and the other was green. At the wall, on top of a 3-foot-tall, throne-like chair, was Twilight, who's look of confusion mirrored mine.

"Conjure! What's going on?" she shouted.

"We need you to judge!" answered Conjure. "Me and War are going to spar! Will you referee?"

"Why do we need a ref?" I asked. "It's a no holds barred, remember? That means anything goes."

"If I'm being honest, I just want to impress her." whispered Conjure.

I shrugged my shoulders and took a spot near the rear of the red half. Conjure stood opposite of me in the green half. Purple light surrounded his hands, and his two swords melted out of thin air. He swiped them through the air and twirled, looking admittedly badass. My hands began to glow in a similar way, and I felt the weight of Mjolnir fall into my right hand. I tossed the behemoth of a hammer over my shoulder and smacked my chest with my other hand. Conjure stepped back about half a step, meaning I won the intimidation contest. I'm pretty sure that wasn't part of the fight, but I won it!

"Twilight!" complained Conjure.

"I have to make it fair!" she shouted back. "3! 2! 1! Begin!"

Conjure rushed forward, faster than I could swing. He slashed at my ribs, which I blocked with my hammer shaft. My right foot swung to the right, connecting with his ribcage and probably bruising them. He winced, but recovered quickly, fast enough to swing his cold blade into my shoulder. It cut shallowly, just spitting a little bit of blood out onto his blade. I brought my elbow down onto his wrist, causing him to drop his sword. I used my knee to do something similar on the other arm and hit him in the chest with my palms. Conjure's arms flew forward, and I took the opportunity. I lifted Mjolnir and released it right into Conjure's hands. He instinctively gripped it and fell with the hammer all the way down to earth. I flipped him over with my foot and pinned him down with Mjolnir, placing the shaft over his neck.

"You give?" I asked.

"No!" he shouted. His horn began to glow green, and he vanished from under my hammer. I looked around for him, finding nopony else but Twilight. Suddenly, I felt a sharp blade slice at my ankle. I kicked in the direction of the blade, hitting nothing. Another slash, this time in my side, came from nowhere. Conjure was hiding, and I had an idea on how to lure him out. I ignored his slashes and turned my attention towards Twilight.

"Hey! He ran away!" I shouted.

"I know! He'll probably be back!" she answered.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask! What's up with you two?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Are you dating? Do you want to?" I said, keeping my ears peeled and ignoring a slash it my shoulder. "I know how uncomfortable it can be talking to him, so I can wing-man for you. Push him in the right direction, you know?"

"Would you really do that?" she said excitedly. Then, realizing what she just let slip, she cleared her throat and began to blush furiously. "I mean, what? Why would I… Why… W-why would I ask you for that?"

"Well, before you start dating, I think you should know some things." I said. "Conjure wet the bed until the age of eleven."

"Um… Why does that matter?" she asked, blushing tomato red.

"Just things you should know. Another thing, he once had the option between getting laid and doing calculus, and he chose calculus."

"I probably would've picked calculus, too." said Twilight.

"Alright, alright. Just one more thing." I said, betting it all on this last toss of the dice. "He was a big fan of yours before you two actually met."

"Weren't you all? You did like me when you thought I was just a character, right?" asked Twilight.

"We all liked you, but Conjure always had a special fascination." I continued. Conjure was slashing at every piece of skin he could get his blade on, no reaction from me.

"Fascination? What do you mean?"

"Well… Have you ever heard of clopping?" I said.

"No!" shouted Conjure, slashing at my left hand as hard as he could. His sword passed through my wrist, spewing blood and yanking a grunt of pain from my throat. I gripped the bleeding stump to slow the bleeding, while Conjure removed his invisibility spell, horror and fear apparent on his face.

"Oh my gosh!" he squealed. "Robert! Are you okay?"

"You just cut off my goddamn hand!" I shouted, dropping to my knees. "Do I look okay?!" Conjure ran up to me and started healing my stump of an arm with his magic. As soon as he was within range, I grabbed him by the neck and pinned him to the ground, laughing all the time.

"And I'm the dumb one." I chuckled, pinching his horn and snuffing out the magic. My skin began to glow green and the blood stopped flowing instantly. A big chunk of flesh melted from out of my wrist, with five warm, squishy tubes pushing from the end of that. As soon as Vitality did it's magic (Ha! Get it?), my arm fell limp, completely unusable.

"What?" asked Conjure. "How?"

"When you cut off my hand, I waited until you got close." I said. "I pinned you and healed myself with Vitality. You give yet?"

"I can't give up!"

"Listen, if you let me go, I'll let you help." I said. "You can't stop me from going, but if you're so worried, you can come help."

"But if you want me to help, why are you leaving in the first place?" he asked. "It doesn't make sense, even for you."

"I just want to kill Sombra, and Fluttershy needs a bit of a break from me." I explained. "As soon as I do kill Sombra, I'll come back and help you guys out."

"There's really no talking you out of this, is there?" asked Conjure. "Fine. I'll help. If Twilight keeps Fluttershy off of my ass."

"I already got permission." said Twilight, jumping from her seat to join us. "While you two were fighting, I recorded it and sent it to Fluttershy. She gave permission for you two to go, if I stay here to help her."

"Even Fluttershy is with it." I said. "So, here's what we do: We teleport to the topmost floor of the Impaler and kill everyone on the floor. Then we go down a floor, and so on. Good plan? Great plan!"

"I suppose it's as good as anything." said Conjure. "I'll just have to conjure up some extra firepower and-"

"Ha!" I laughed loudly. "You gotta what now?"

"Conjure up some-. Oh, shut up!" he chuckled. Then his eyes fell on my fallen hand. "Sorry about that."

"Don't be. I probably would've done it myself." I said. I picked it up from the floor and bent all of the fingers down, save for one. Guess which one.

"What are you doing?" asked Twilight.

"I need a box, a piece of paper, a pen, and a teleportation spell that will drop this right into Sombra's lap." I said. "He wants to send gifts? I can send gifts, too. Except my gifts are a little more personal."

"What do you hope to accomplish by using your severed hand to flip Sombra the bird?" asked Conjure.

"Confuse him, but above all else, to piss him off. We'll see who's more dangerous when angry, The King of Shadows or The Black Death, War Horse!"

"Are you sure that's wise?" asked Twilight.

"Probably not." I said. "That's why I'm going to do it."

"What if things go south?" asked Conjure.

"Don't worry. I have a plan. I'll need your magic to help me get this done, and then I need to learn how to do that speed thing again. What do you think I should call that?"

"How about 'Lightning Legs'?" tried Conjure.

"Isn't that a Street Fighter move?" asked Twilight. "It is! That's one of Chun-li's moves."

"How do you even know about Street Fighter?" I asked.

"I've played a few video games since I got here. I love Street Fighter and Portal, but my favorite has to be Metal Gear Solid."

"How about 'Greased Lightning'? That sounds cool." I said.

"That's a movie from the '70s." said Twilight.

"Why do you know so much about Earth pop culture?" asked Conjure. "You'd be amazing at pub quiz at Jackson's."

"I got it!" I said. "In honor of her, I'm going to call it The Rainbow Dash!"

"It has nothing to do with rainbows."

"Don't care. It's either this or Greased Lightning, and at least with this I have a little nod to my friend. Wait, wait, hold on… Silver Dash! Boom! Two friends, the first and last to die."

"I'm shocked you didn't name it after Pinkie." said Twilight. "Like 'Pink Flash' or 'Party Time'."

"Sugar Rush." said Conjure. I hung my head in disappointment, the sheer perfection of that name somehow escaping me.

"That. I'm using that, and I will not change it for any reason." I said. "It's almost as if someone's trying to stall me, keep me here for a little longer."

"Why would we do that?" asked Conjure. "We're all on board."

"I guess… Maybe someone on the outside…."

"You mean, like, a god?" asked Twilight.

"Maybe you're on to something, Twi. Maybe you're on to something."

* * *

I sat in Silver's bedroom, focusing all of my energies around my body. I would need every Buff I had if I wanted to kill Sombra tomorrow, and super-speed would be very helpful, especially if it made my fists move faster. I had it to a science, which I called "Face-punch-ology", a subscience of "Ass-kick-ular Physics".

"Gotta get this." I muttered to myself. I went through all of my Buffs, starting up Battlecry, then Vitality, then Steelskin, stopping each of them quickly. The other's were easy to do, because they were things I already exhibited. I was already strong, already tough. Speed was never my strong suit. I was big, and I could never run very fast or for very long. With Battlecry, I just focused on my strength and I would just get stronger. I can't focus on a trait I don't have. I stood up and tried to think about how I did it the first time. All I wanted to do was get my hands on the changeling and break it, as fast as possible. I felt a weird vibration in my legs, and they felt like I had sand running through my veins. My skin began to glow bright blue, and I couldn't stop shaking. I took a step forward and was out of the room. I tried to take a smaller step, this time only going a few yards. I tip-toe ran forward a max of five of my steps and flew around the house, ending up in Conjure's room, Pinkie's room and the kitchen, flying and zooming all over the house. I zipped past Twilight once or twice, confusing her greatly. I was almost moving too fast for her to see. That's when I realised I couldn't stop. I flashed past door after door, trying to find the brakes. Finally, I shoved my right foot down, breaking through the floor. I stopped, tripped forward and tumbled into a room, into some weird clay thing. Hot water poured down onto my face, waking me from my stupor. I got to my feet quickly, trying to gauge where I was. I seemed to be in a shower. Wait, a shower? Why was it on?

"Shit." I said to myself. I turned slowly and was nose to nose with Fluttershy, who was covering her breasts with one arm. Oh, she was also naked.

"What the hell!" she shouted, trying to cover up as much as she could. "I'm trying to take a shower, dammit!"

"Sorry, sorry!" I cried, closing my eyes. "Sugar Rush is hard to control!"

"Get out!"

"I have to wait until the magic dies down!" I shouted back. It got really quiet after that, probably because we were both terrified. She was scared of me hurting her again, and I was scared of opening my eyes. I've gotten into a lot of trouble over the years, but never once for being a perv. I've always tried to respect women, something I learned from my father. Not in the way you'd think.

"So…" I said, eyes still clenched shut. "How was your day?"

"Oh, it was going fine." she said scathingly. "Until a maniac strangled me then jumped in my shower!"

"Yeah… sorry about that. I don't know if this helps, but I can see why Silver liked you."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know how to say it without sounding creepy, but you have very symmetrical nipples."

"What?!" she asked, punching me in the gut.

"I only got a glimpse, but they seemed pretty even." I said. "Your boobs in general are nice and even, which is something Silver obsessed about."

"Why?!"

"I don't know. The man is entitled to his weird nipple-preferences."

"How do you know this?" she asked.

"It's a guy thing." I muttered. Suddenly, I felt limp and wobbly (Shut up. Not like that), energy leaving my body. I fell forward, landing on something nice and soft. Or rather, two somethings. Oh Christ. I was falling asleep.

"War!" shouted Fluttershy from what sounded like a mile away. "Get off of my tits!"

"Goodnight." I mumbled, blacking out completely.


	15. War's Diary: Entry 3

NAME: Robert Thompson

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: War Horse, Ivan Golovin, The Black Death

AGE: 23 years

DIARY ENTRY: #15

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Dyslexia, Intermittent Explosive Disorder

STATUS: Healthy

* * *

I woke up the next morning, massaging my sore face. I had a pretty high pain tolerance, but several bitch-slaps in the same spot will eventually sting. I can't really blame Fluttershy for losing it. I have no one to blame but… Conjure. Hey! Don't look at me like that! It was his fault! He's the one who suggested that I test it in the house! Oh, and I can blame Twilight, too. Wither her access to the diaries, she should have been able to warn me that Fluttershy was in the shower. Man, those unicorns sure were useless sometimes.

"I heard that!" shouted Twilight, voice floating through the PA.

I know you heard it. That's why I thought it. Hey, when are we leaving?

"Conjure's putting some finishing touches on the plan. He's making sure that your hand made it there alright. That was a bit extreme, by the way."

Twilight could think what she wanted. It wasn't extreme. The best way to get the attention of men like Sombra was through brutal, personal strength. I say men, but Sombra's no man. A man has honor, respect, a conscious. Sombra has none of any of the three. He's not a man. People like him shouldn't be allowed to call themselves men. People like him shouldn't be allowed to call themselves people. Sombra, Ivan, they're all animals. Not even worthy to be called beasts, they are lower than low. Lying, cheating, degenerates, capable of nothing but evil.

"You okay there?" asked Twilight. "Who's Ivan? The Russian president?"

"That's another story." I said out loud. "Twilight, if you see the name Ivan in my diary again, read past it. I forbid you to see my thoughts of him."

"Fair enough. War, I feel weird talking to you like this. Come meet me in Fluttershy's office. We need to plan, face to face. Get down here, please."

"Alright." I said, rising to my hooves. I shoved open Pinkie's door and went through the quiet hallway, down the long staircase to the ground floor. I stopped just before the living room and took a left, walking into Fluttershy's cluttered office. Twilight was sitting at Fluttershy's desk, sifting through files and books, pausing occasionally to read and type something on the computer. She didn't even look up at me.

"Conjure still thinks that this is a bad idea." she said. "I agree with him. Can we talk you out of this?"

"No." I said. "Where is he, anyway?"

"Setting up. He said he'll meet you outside whenever you're ready. I meant to ask you, did you ever get a handle on Sugar Rush?"

"Sort of. I'm sure I'll be able to pull it off when I need to." I said. I leaned forward, trying to peek at the computer screen, which Twilight covered with her hands before I could read more than two words.

"You can't look at this!" she cried. "These are diaries! I'm trying to read through Fluttershy's right now!"

"Liar, liar, pants on fire." I said. "I clearly saw the word 'Conjure' at the top of the screen. I don't even get why you lied about it."

"Well, I… I'm sort of… How do I say this?" said Twilight, blushing slightly. "I'm… searching for some classified, potentially life changing, information that Conjure can never know that I was looking for."

"Twilight, if you want to know if he likes you, all you have to do is ask." I said. All color in Twilight's face drained and she began sputtering badly, the worst I've ever seen. At first, I couldn't even pick a word out of those sentences, just a lot of "I", "Wha?" and "Why?" sounds.

"I-I… What gave you… I mean, I would never…" she stammered. "Why would I look for… I mean, that would be irresponsible… I couldn't… Does he?"

"Does he what?" I asked.

"You know what! Does he like me?"

"I'm sorry, does he what?" I asked again, smile breaking out across my face. Twilight was getting very frustrated with me, and it was really funny.

"Does he like me?" whispered Twilight.

"It's against my contract to confirm or deny the attraction or lack thereof between my client and you."

"Client?! Contract?! What contract?!" she asked in outrage.

"Bro Code. Legally binding." I explained. "We signed a contract years back, in blood, agreeing to things such as this."

"So, you can't tell me if he likes me? Can you tell me if he doesn't?"

"That would fall under 'lack thereof', wouldn't it?"

"Dammit, War, just tell me!" she shouted.

"Let's think about it." I said. I think I pushed her a bit too far. "What do you think?"

"I doubt it. Why would he like me?"

"Then why even bother checking?"

"Because one could deduce feelings of infatuation based on some of the language he uses and his reaction to using that language." said Twilight. "Basically, he makes it look like he does, but he won't actually come out and say it. Very frustrating, nearly infuriating."

"If you like him, why don't you say something?" I asked. "Don't wait for him. Make your move."

"I've read several books on the subject, and in every book I've read, the guy has to confess his feelings first. I can't go against the books. It won't work the same if I say something."

"But isn't it worth a shot? The odds of it not working are slim, if he does in fact like you." I said. Twilight simply shook her head.

"Every source says otherwise. When I said I've read several books, I mean a lot." she explained. "Jane Eyre, Twilight, Outlander, Fifty Shades of Neigh-"

"Hold up just a minute! Fifty Shades of what?" I asked.

"Neigh. It's about a stallion who falls in love with a mare, but in order to be with her, he has to endure fifty moons of excessively loud neighing that only he can hear. The neighs get louder and higher pitched after every moon, and by the end he's gone mad. After he confesses his love, he is too crazy to be with her, and he kills himself to protect her."

"Thank God." I sighed. "I was… scared… for a minute."

"Why?" she asked.

"Well, there's a book here called Fifty Shades of Grey, and I thought that's what you were talking about."

"Fifty Shades of Grey? Is that a romance novel?"

"You could say that. Wait, go back even further! Why have you read Twilight?" I asked.

"I _thought_ it would be about me, or astronomy or something, but it was just some stupid vampire book." said Twilight. "I hated it, but I was already halfway and I figured I'd finish it."

"Team Edward or Jacob?" I asked with a sigh. Twilight looked up and blushed slightly, small smile breaking on her face.

"Edward!" she squealed. "I read all of them! They were so good!"

"You're taste in books is about the same as your taste in men." I said. "And, no, that is not a compliment."

"Don't you have some place to be?" she asked.

"Right! I'll be on my way!" I said, giving a little wave. I left the office and stood against the wall, pressing my ear against it in an attempt to catch Twi's next words. She stood quiet for a while, probably waiting to make sure I left. I heard a few clicks and some buttons being pressed on a keyboard, followed by Twilight's wistful sigh.

"Oh, Edward." I heard her say. "Of course I'll become Misses Twilight Cullens!"

"I'm telling Conjure!" I said, just loud enough for Twilight to think she heard me. That's when I started walking.

"What?!" shrieked Twilight, leaning her head out of the doorway.

"Huh?" I asked, playing dumb.

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Me… nevermind. Don't tell Conjure!" she said, falling back into the room. I laughed and decided to stop messing with Twilight. I walked through the halls, passing into the kitchen and out to the backyard, laughing all the way. I was laughing until I was face to face with Conjure, and then I kept laughing. It was too damn funny.

"What's got you laughing so hard?" he asked.

"Twilight's crush on Edward Cullens." I chuckled.

"Edward? I thought she'd be Team Jacob, for sure." he muttered.

"What?!"

"Nothing! Don't we have to go? You ready? Or do you need me to conjure some stuff for you? Look, I said 'conjure' which is both my name and a verb that means to create from magic, which is what my special skill is in the first place! Hahaha!"

"Please don't tell me you read that sparkly vampire crap." I said.

"It's not crap! And I've only seen the movies!" he said. "Sarah made me watch the first one when it came out, and then I sorta developed movie-Stockholm Syndrome!"

"So, you've never read the books?"

"Well… maybe once or twice."

"Which ones?" I asked.

"All of them." he admitted

"Dammit, boy! Just when I thought you had some dignity, you ruin it by saying you've read that trash. I mean, vampires! Vampires that sparkle! What the hell?"

"What about you? You read books about vampires all the time!" pointed out Conjure. "What about Vladimir Tod?"

"The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod and The Twilight Saga cannot even be grouped into the same category." I said. "It's apples and oranges. Wait, no, it's apples and cyanide!"

"Apples contain cyanide in their seeds, so what you're saying is that they're one in the same."

"No! The differences are worlds away!"

"How so?" he asked.

"For one, one is a piece of literature, and the other was written by Stephenie Meyer." I explained. "Vladimir Tod is a badass, all-powerful vampire, while Edward is a bitch who can't tell that this girl _clearly_ wants to be a vampire! He breaks up with her, doesn't he? Because he doesn't want to bite her?"

"He does end up biting her, though. And isn't that exactly what happened in Vladimir Tod?" asked Conjure.

"No! He broke up with Meredith, and then found someone _way_ cooler and _way_ prettier than Kristen Stewart!" I raged.

"How do you know? There hasn't been a movie adaptation yet. You don't know who's going to act for her, if there's ever going to be a movie at all!"

"I don't have to know. The competition is Kristen Stewart. The only way Snow could end up being worse than her is if she's played by Lady Gaga."

"I bet you fifty bucks that, if there is a Vlad Tod movie, that Snow is played by Kristen Stewart." said Conjure.

"Nope. Jennifer Lawrence, for sure. I will settle for Emma Watson, but Jennifer is preferable."

"Why are we talking about this?" asked Conjure. "Aren't we on a deadline or something?"

"Why _were_ we talking about this? We really should get going." I said. "Man, it's been weird lately."

"Speaking of weird, why the hell did you say that to Fluttershy?!" he asked. "Did you think a casual comment about her boobs would make things _less_ awkward?"

"Um… I was hoping." I said, scratching my head.

"You're hopeless."

"Are we going to try to infiltrate the building using stealth?" I asked. "Or are we rushing in guns blazing?"

"I don't see much point going in stealthily, so I suppose we can do things your way for a change. We should stay in pony form, though. We don't need anyone to know what we look like. You ready? I have your guns in a bag right outside the building, and I can summon your hammer whenever you're ready."

"Conjure, stop worrying." I said. "If you don't stop fussing, you're gonna get yourself killed. don't worry about me."

"I'm not." he lied. "I'm just trying to make sure everything is running smoothly."

"Well, then? Are we leaving or not?"

Conjure placed his hand on my shoulder, and we were soon surrounded in a bright green light. My skin began to shake slightly, and I was blinded with a great big POP! of light. The light faded, and I blinked hard to help regain my sight. We were in front of a tall building, a hundred floors tall, a building that Silver dubbed The Heaven's Impaler. We never found out it's actually name, but The Impaler worked. About halfway up the building was Rainbow Dash. Or rather, what was left of her. She gave off a disgusting, nauseating stench, smelling like burnt rubber, flaming sewage and roadkill. Her body was burnt and terribly disfigured, her flesh mostly charred off. I could only see a few patches of blue fur scattered over her body, and even that was starting to burn.

"I'm going to hurt this asshole." I muttered. Conjure threw me a backpack, which I threw onto my back. I dug into it and pulled out my new shotgun, fully loaded and very lethal. I felt the weight of Mjolnir fall into my hand, and I felt ready.

"Let's go." said Conjure, taking a step.

"Wait!" called a voice, a very familiar girl's voice. I turned around, my eyes falling on the short, pale redhead standing a few feet behind me. Her favorite t-shirt, a Tears of Plague shirt signed by the lead singer, was tattered and covered in ash and soot, and her blue jeans were no better. Even her hair seemed dusty and ashen. Her bright blue eyes were slightly faded, and she approached us with a sort of trudge, like something was holding her back.

"Sarah?" I asked, not thinking. Conjure shot me one look that said "Shut up!" and I instantly felt dumb. Sarah could never know about this, not until it was over.

"How do you know my name?" she asked.

"Um… She told me." I said, pointing to RD's burning carcass.

"Oh. I should've known you were with her. I watched her get shot, on T.V. It's crazy. She hit on me at a bar, and I thought she was just some chick, but no. That was Rainbow Dash, like, really Equestria Rainbow Dash. And she died."

"We know." said Conjure. "Sombra killed her, along with a number of our friends. Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack, Chri- I mean, Silver."

"So who are you?" asked Sarah.

"We're the cavalry." I said. "You know that asshole who killed RD? well, I'm going to break this hammer over his goddamned head."

"So, you're Equestrian?" she asked.

"Yes." answered Conjure.

"What's it like? Is it great?"

"No clue." I said. "We've never been. But, Sarah, we can't sit around and chat. We have work to do, and it'd be best if we got to it now."

"I guess it's time I left. I've been staring at Dash since she got here. I just can't believe it." she said softly. "Good luck, guys."

"Sarah." I said. "Chris died protecting you."

"I beg pardon?"

"War!" whispered Conjure. "What are you doing?"

"She has the right to know. Chris, he was a part of all of this. The leader of this rebellion. He died trying to protect you, and Earth, and Equestria. Don't let his death be for nothing. Go home. Be safe."

"Okay.: she said. "Chris. Never took him as a fighter. That boy was always full of surprises." She walked away slowly, trying to catch a word or two from me and Conjure's conversation.

"You ready?" I asked, grabbing the door handle. "Make sure the escape is set."

"It will be." he said. He grabbed the other door handle and pushed open the door with me in perfect tandem. The lobby was completely empty, the front desk ravished and cracked. To our left was a staircase, which was probably a trap. To our right was an elevator, also almost definitely trapped. Conjure grabbed my shoulder and surrounded us in bright green again.

POP!

We reappeared on a different floor, one floor up, right in a gaggle of changelings. They jumped back and drew their weapon-limb-things, preparing for a fight. Wow, there was a lot.

"I count seven." I said, leaning Mjolnir against my shoulder.

"That's unfair." said Conjure, summoning his katanas using magic.

"I know. I feel bad for them." I laughed.

"You are surrounded." said one changeling, starting a slow pace around us. I noticed he had a limp on his right leg, a severe one too. "We have the exits sealed off. You are trapped."

"Not smart." I said. "You see, you trapped us all. But I came here willingly. I want to be right here, next to you guys. I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me."

"Who are you?" asked the leader changeling.

"Don't act like you don't remember. I'm War Horse, but there are some who call me The Black Death." At the name "Black Death", every changeling in the room took a step back.

"You work for The Yellow Plague?" asked one of the other changelings.

"No. She works for me. You there, leader guy!" I said, pointing at him. "How's the leg? Looks like you got a new one, after I shattered the other."

"You've fought him before?" asked one of the subordinate changelings.

"He has indeed. Ask him why he's so afraid." I said, taking a step forward. Every changeling in the room backed up, looking for an exit. "I am going to kill you all. It is my expert opinion that you start running, now. You have until the count of five, then you die. One…"

POP!

Every single changeling vanished from the room in a blinding flash of green. Conjure looked at me in amazement, shocked that I didn't kill them on sight.

"I had to teach them." I said. "They're scared now. When I kill them, they'll know how Pinkie felt. The true meaning of fear, of loss, of pain…"

"The true meaning of war." said Sombra's growling voice. The King of Shadows stepped into the room, his grey steel armor glistening slightly. He drew a black sword and began to make his way towards me, stopping about a yard away, a maniacal smile etched onto his face.

"So, the douchebag presents himself." I said. "Conjure, this is the part when you leave."

"What?" he said. "No. I'm staying to help fight."

"Go home, bro. Make sure the escape is in place and leave."

"War, this is stupid!"

"I know. Never argue with stupid people. They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience." I said. Conjure's face fell with surprise. "I bet you didn't know I read Mark Twain, did ya?"

"I didn't know you could read." he joked, shrouding his horn in green light. He shot me a look of sadness, begging me to leave with him. I kept up my stony-faced gaze and he knew it was a lost cause. He waved to me once and disappeared into a pop of green light, leaving me with the Devil himself.

"One on one confrontation?" said Sombra. "I like it. So, War, correct? Out of curiosity, whose hand was in the box?"

"Mine." I said, gripping Mjolnir tightly. I dropped the shotgun to the floor. I've already seen how useful guns were against this dirtball, and I didn't feel like trying old tricks.

"I'm not sure how you did it, but I admire the guts."

"I'm about to admire your guts. I'd like to see them in a bit more natural light." I said. My skin began to glow blue, and I felt my legs vibrate. I stepped forward, zooming forward and slamming into Sombra, shoulder first. He stumbled back, the shock and pain of my attack clearly visible on his face. He regained his cool demeanor and fell into an almost lazy battle stance.

"Right to the chase, then?" said Sombra. He jumped forward and slashed at my shoulder, cutting me shallowly with his blade. I swung Mjolnir hard into his legs, tripping him up. I raised it above my head and brought the hammer down, smashing it's head through black smoke. Sombra reformed behind me and stabbed at my left leg. I swung again and again into Sombra's midsection, him avoiding it every time by popping into smoke and passing through my hammer harmlessly.

"Is this it?" laughed Sombra, passing through each of my relentless attacks. "I thought you'd be more of a challenge! At least you're fighting, not like the others. The pink one especially was pathetic, dying while begging her friends to save her. But you didn't, did you? Pinkamena Diane Pie, the mare who put her faith in her friends, was disappointed and hung out to dry."

My blood began to boil and my skin began to glow blood red. I swung harder and faster and faster and harder, determined to hurt this sick fucker! He laughed again savagely, passing through each hammer swing.

"Are you here to avenge her?" he asked scathingly. "Is that what you want? To kill me for hurting your woman? You're right to do so, by the way. I hurt her. My knife slid into her throat again and again. She died in fear, in terror, begging for help and you were nowhere to be found.

"**SHUT UP!**" I bellowed, swinging hard to the right. This time, my hammer hit flesh with a squishing, crunching sound, sending Sombra flying to the right. I threw Mjolnir to the floor and grabbed sombra off the ground. I threw him against a wall and felt Sugar Rush take over, sending me zooming forward into him. I punched him hard in the face, then again, then again, then again! My fists moved like lightning, hitting him thirty time in fifteen seconds.

"**DIE!**" I roared. Sombra laughed and passed through my fist. He grabbed my by the throat and hoisted my into the air, choking me slightly. I felt Battlecry wear off, at the worst possible time. Sombra took his knife and reared it back, preparing to stab me. Out of instinct, I activated Steelskin, feeling my skin shake slightly as the blade bounced off of my forehead. Sombra pushed the blade against my face, casting a variety of spells on his knife, trying to crack my buff.

"My knife cannot crack your skin. Yet." said Sombra. "You have a few seconds. What do you have to say?"

"Did you even listen to my conversation earlier?" I asked. "I told Conjure to make sure the escape was ready. We both knew I wasn't getting out of here alive."

"What of it? There is no escape. You're only release is death."

"Exactly." I said, feeling my Steelskin recede as well. Sombra's knife slowly punctured my skin, pushing against my skull and digging into my brain. The sharp pain was unbeareable, but I only had to persevere a while longer. I felt the tip of the knife touch the chip, the diary chip, and felt a small box appear in my hand. I raised the detonator high so that Sombra could see it. The chip was cracking, just like Sombra's smug-ass grin was. As the blood leaked from my forehead and the pain soared through my head, I pressed the button, beginning the very short timer on the bombs that Conjure placed around the building. The bombs will kill me before Sombra, at least. I was dying, my thoughts clouding, but I refused to die before the bombs detonated. I… will… persevere. Only a few more seconds.

"And then there were three." I muttered, feeling my brain be consumed into darkness.

* * *

NAME: Robert Thompson

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: War Horse, Ivan Golovin, The Black Death

AGE: 23 years

DIARY ENTRY: #15

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Dyslexia, Intermittent Explosive Disorder

STATUS: Deceased


	16. Twilight's Diary: Entry 1

NAME: Twilight Sparkle

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Twi, Tara, Sarah Jones Smith

AGE: 22 years

DIARY ENTRY: #16

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Pathological Perfectionism

STATUS: Healthy

* * *

I vanished from the base, reappearing a short second later in a pop of lavender light. I stepped back to gawk at Rainbow Dash's burning corpse, and the belt of explosives surrounding the building. To my right was Conjure, a terrible, downtrodden grimace plastered across his face. I read War's diary and came as fast as I could. The look on Conjure's face told me that I was too late.

"Back up a little." he said, stepping back a few feet. I followed him, trying to get a feel for the situation. He seemed down, but was functioning more or less like normal.

"Why are we falling back?" I asked. A deafening, resounding boom shook the ground, sending me flying back a few feet. The building, The Heaven's Impaler, shook and shattered, chunks of debris and shrapnel falling to the ground. It crumpled downwards, flaming bits of steel and concrete raining onto the ground. A huge plume of black smoke rose from the smoldering, ruined building, filling the air with an acrid smell. Then, I noticed the splatters of green, and chunks of purplish-black flesh from the changelings destroyed in the explosion.

"Let's go." said Conjure.

"Wait! Are you okay?" I asked.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well… War's sort of…"

"I know he's dead, Twilight, but why would I be sad about it? This was the way he wanted to go out, and I'd only feel bad if he died in any other way."

"You're not upset?" I asked. "I thought you'd be crying."

"I'm upset, but not to the point of tears. I always knew War would get himself killed." he sighed. "I just wish he got Sombra."

"Sombra survived?"

"He teleported out just before the explosion. All we did was commit an act of terrorism, really. Let's go. I'm ready to give Fluttershy the after-action report, and I have to do something first."

He grabbed my hand softly and led me forward. We walked through the streets, past the ruined section from our attempt to lure Discord, past the area where Rarity is thought to have died. It was about five minutes before we stopped, in front of a building, the neon sign reading "Jackson's". He pushed at the doors, which were apparently locked. His horn began to glow green, the lock clicked, and he pushed open into the building. A restaurant from the looks of it. I followed him into the empty restaurant. Well, nearly empty. The only other person was a redhead, sitting behind the counter with her back to us.

"Sarah." said Conjure. The girl turned around slowly, her face oddly familiar.

"I know you!" I said. "You were the girl that Rain- I mean Rachel, was trying to talk to."

"I know that it was Rainbow Dash." she said. "And if you wanted to trick me into thinking you were a human, you probably should've hid the horn, _Tara_."

"Oops."

"Time to come clean." said Conjure. "The guy you saw with me? That was Robert. He's dead now."

"I thought he seemed familiar." said Sarah. "I thought he died a while ago."

"No. That was a lie. He's been fighting to defeat Sombra. He died just now. I thought you should know."

"Wait. If Chris was involved, and Rob was involved, are you-" began Sarah. Conjure grabbed me by the wrist and surrounded us both in bright green light. I waved at Sarah, disappearing from the restaurant. We popped into the living room of our base, Fluttershy standing in the doorway, her face damp with tears. She came up to Conjure and hugged him tightly, crying softly into his shoulder. The living room was trashed, the couch flipped on it's side and my barely used Playstation 4 thrown across the room. It looked like Fluttershy had went on a bit of a rampage, and my video games had to suffer for a reason completely unknown to me.

"I'm sorry." said Fluttershy. "I just read. It's all my fault."

"Don't be an idiot." said Conjure, patting her softly on the back. "This wasn't your fault."

"Yes it is. I told you guys to go, and he died because of it."

"Do you really think that he would've stayed if you told him to?" asked Conjure. "War is a little dumb, and even more stubborn. This would've happened anyway. I've made my peace with it, and you should too."

"Dumb bastard." sighed Fluttershy, releasing Conjure from her hug. "It's down to us three, then. Do we even stand a chance?"

"No. The game is rigged, which is going to make it even sweeter when we win. Twilight, come with me, please. I had a thought, and I need your help to get past a certain barrier."

* * *

The thin blade of my rapier crossed with the straight edge of Conjure's katana, although, since the blade was straight rather than curved, his swords are technically classified as ninjaken. Conjure pushed my rapier away and sliced at my shin, which I blocked and deflected. He left his legs wide open, and I swept him to the floor with my hoof. I pressed my sword tip right against his heart, waiting a few seconds before confirming my victory.

"Stop holding back." I said, dropping my sword and extending my hand to help him up. He accepted my hand, then pulled me down to the ground with him. I smiled slightly, glad to see his playful side again. Then I realized that I should be terrified. War's been dead for all of five hours, and he was already back to joking around. I suppose I can't blame him. This battle has sort of numbed me to the thought of death. I don't even think I cried when Rainbow died. It's become too commonplace.

"What makes you think I was holding back?" he asked.

"Because you're not dumb enough to get tripped up like that." I explained. "Wasn't this your idea? In case we ever have to fight each other?"

"I just don't want to hurt you. You and Commandoshy are my only friends, now that War's dead."

"You have to have other friends besides us." I said.

"Not really. Honestly, I never really wanted friends. Growing up, War and Silver were my only friends, and we sort of adopted Sarah into the group. Other than them, I didn't really have anyone. I threw myself into my studies and books, and I didn't have time for friends."

"Why are you so obsessed with learning?" I asked.

"You could talk. You're obsession is just as bad." he said, slightly defensively. "Why do you live in your schooling?"

"It's a bit of a long story."

"I have time to listen."

"Alright. It's because of my parents." I said, sighing sadly. "They didn't really want me. Their plan was to have their perfect son, which ended up being my brother Shining Armor. They were happy with that, but then I came around and screwed it up. They didn't abuse me or anything, but they always had time for Shining, but never really any for me. I thought that if I studied hard and learned magic, if I made my life around this talent that my family has prized for years, that maybe they'd acknowledge me. Celestia accepted me as her student, and I thought I would finally have the attention I wanted. Then Shining became leader of the guard, and I completely fell from their memory."

"Does Shining Armor realize?" he asked.

"No. My brother is great, just not very bright. He just doesn't get what it's like to be the second born of a family who only wanted one kid. And then he married Cadance, a princess for Celestia's sake, and I lost whatever remnants of a chance I had of my parents' love. Anyway, that's my sob story. Now tell me yours."

"That's just it." he said, turning to lay on his back. "I don't really have one. I wasn't abused, I wasn't neglected, I wasn't mistreated. I wasn't homeless, or broke, or hungry or whatever. My parents were both there for me. It's just that my parents are a little… stupid. My dad dropped out of school after trying the seventh grade four times, and my mom never went to school. My mom was a stay at home mom, and my dad worked at a car parts manufacturer. I just wanted to make sure I would never have to work hard like them. I studied hard and long, and I never really thought friends were worth my time."

"You must've been lonely." I said.

"Yeah, but I liked it that way. The way I see it, it's safer to be lonely. The more people in your life, the more chances you have to be hurt by them."

"The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you, no matter what." I said. "You just have to find people worth suffering for."

"Good thing I found you, then." he said. "I think you're worth suffering for." My face grew warm, and I felt like this would be The Moment. I don't know what it was the moment for, but every book I read said that if a guy liked you, he'd say something like that. Then, you'd have The Moment. But what next?!

"If you guys are gonna bang, do it now." said Fluttershy's voice, ringing through the walls. "Make it good, too. Don't waste my time with some half-assed crap ."

"And there goes The Moment." I muttered.

"What do you want?" asked Conjure.

"I need to review this plan of Twilight's. Both of you might as well come." said Fluttershy. "No such thing as too many nerds."

"You have a plan?" asked Conjure.

"Sort of. Let's get with Fluttershy, and I'll tell you all about it." I said. Purple light surrounded both Conjure and myself. The light grew and we vanished from the room, reappearing in Fluttershy's office. I landed on my hooves, but Conjure wasn't so lucky. He ended up about three feet above Fluttershy's desk, still laying down. He fell hard, smashing through Fluttershy's desk and bruising himself considerably, I'm sure.

"Son of a-!" cried Conjure in pain.

"Are you okay?" I asked in concern.

"You broke my desk with your boyfriend?" asked Fluttershy. "Is this because I broke your Playstation?"

"I swear, I didn't mean to! I'm so, so sorry Conjure!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine." he said, dusting himself off and getting back to his hooves. His horn began to glow with green light, light that soon began to surround his lower back. "What's this plan of yours?"

"My plan? What plan?" I asked, staring at his healing spell. He seemed alright, but…

"Your plan, nerd." said Fluttershy. "You know? The plan that may or may not save our asses?"

"Plan, plan… Oh, right! My plan!" I said, remembering it suddenly. "Well, I've been thinking, and I've come to the conclusion that we've been going about this all wrong."

"What do you mean?" asked Conjure.

"We've been trying all of this time to kill Sombra, but that's the wrong way to win this war. Sombra is strong, sure, but he's still only one stallion. If we can take out all of his supporters, we might be able to take him."

"Sounds good, except for the fact that even if we separated Sombra from his army, we'd still be hard-pressed to beat him." said Fluttershy.

"I've been working on a little project, and I need the help of Earth's population to accomplish it." I explained. "We can't depend on their help now, not with Sombra being in total control. What we need is to give the humans hope, and then their hope will lead them to act out and help us. We scratch their backs, they scratch ours."

"Out with it, already." said Fluttershy frustratedly. "I don't have time to decipher your riddles."

"Don't get your hopes up. This is a chance, a very small chance, but I think I can get us home."

"Say again?" asked Conjure, massaging his back. "What do you mean?"

"I can open a portal to Equestria, with the help of the humans." I said. I started my usual, habitual pacing around Fluttershy and Conjure. "It'll be hard. It's going to take a lot of magic, more magic than is in any single unicorns."

"How much magic exactly?" asked Fluttershy. "Why do we need the human's help?"

"Let's look at Conjure for a moment." I said, pausing in front of him and beginning my lecture. For the first time, people seemed interested. "He's ridiculously powerful. When we met him, he was 17 years old. His first act of magic showed that he was close to par with me, which is ludicrous."

"Why is that?" asked Conjure sensitively.

"Because you were 17 years old. The longer a unicorn goes without learning his or her magic, the weaker it ends up being. If we would've met when you were 8 or 9 years old, you'd easily be able to overtake Celestia. But, right now, most of your magic is still in it's raw stage and is weaker than if it were refined, which makes it even more amazing that you're equal in strength to me. I've had years to perfect my magic, most of my life, and Conjure has become a worthy rival within three years."

"The point, Twilight?" asked Fluttershy impatiently.

"The point is that all humans have intensely powerful magic." I continued. I was used to heckling like this. "If we can get them to give some of it up, I can use it for a portal to Equestria. Then, we can report our losses to Princess Celestia and she'll likely give us some sort of assistance."

"This seems pretty easy." said Conjure. "If I have so much magical energy, you can just use mine. We won't need the humans."

"The average human has about one hundred thousand joules of magical energy within them." I said, shaking my head. "As it's all raw, I'll only be able to use about half of that, so fifty thousand joules per person. That means we can get a total of 3.523e+14 joules, in the best possible situation. We need 1.7615e+14 joules."

"That's more than enough." said Fluttershy. "I think. I'm no good with numbers."

"I estimate that only about half of Earth's population will actually give the magic if asked. The other half will either choose not to, won't be able to, or just won't believe us. Even still, we'll have barely enough."

"How barely?" asked Conjure.

"If even one person extra chooses not to give magic, we won't be able to make it." I sighed. "And, as I've learned from Silver and War especially, humans can be very stubborn."

"Where does your plan fit in?" asked Fluttershy.

"Oh! Right! We have to kill the changelings, most of them at least, in order for Earth to even consider helping us." I explained. "And I have an easy, safe way of destroying them. Or, at least, I will. I can create a virus that will eradicate all of changeling-kind, and maybe even get Sombra sick, since he was granted the shape-changing ability."

"Well, then, get going!" shouted Fluttershy. "Get to work on this virus!"

"Not so simple." said Conjure, pulling the words right from my mouth. "Twilight can't just make a virus. She doesn't know anything about changeling anatomy, am I right?"

"One hundred percent." I answered. "I don't know anything about their organs, so I need some to inspect. Organs, I mean. I'll just find some changelings, incapacitate them, bring them here and…"

"No." said Fluttershy. "I will not allow a changeling under this roof. Too dangerous. You can't bring them anywhere near here."

"But how am I supposed to test their organs?! I can't do it there, I won't be able to get my equipment set up in time. The organs need to be put in a safe, sterile, cold environment to preserve them, and I can't carry the freezer around. It's too heavy."

"If only War would've waited a week or two." sighed Conjure, shaking his head. Suddenly, a gleam shone in his eye, his body went rigid, and he raised his hand, almost habitually.

"Are you okay?" I asked. He looked at his hand and lowered it, shaking his head slightly.

"Sorry. Whenever I have a brilliant idea, I raise my hand." he said. "I'm used to being in school. You said you need to get the organs into a freezer, but you can't physically bring them there. And, as you can't bring the freezer to them, it looks like you're out of options. But what if we bring the organs, minus changelings, to the freezer within seconds?"

"If you could somehow pull that off, then you're a genius." I said. "But how am I supposed to do that?"

"Sharpen your sword and go get some gloves. I'm going to teach you how to Zandatsu." said Conjure.

"You're going to what?" I asked. "Where do I know that word from? That's from a game, isn't it? Metal Gear Rising, if I'm not mistaken. But what is it?"

He grabbed my hand and led me from the room, waving goodbye to Fluttershy. He took me downstairs with a mischievous smile on his face.

"You don't mind getting your hands dirty, do you?" asked Conjure.


	17. Twilight's Diary: Entry 2

NAME: Twilight Sparkle

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Twi, Tara, Sarah Jones Smith

AGE: 22 years

DIARY ENTRY: #17

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Pathological Perfectionism

STATUS: Healthy

* * *

Conjure sharpened my sword against the grindstone he summoned in the middle of the training room, replacing the war map. Sparks flew from the blade of the sword, bouncing off of his goggles while I just hovered behind him, looking on with anticipation. After a few moments, he seemed satisfied and handed me my weapon. He pressed his palms to the grindstone, pushing it into the ground and pulling up something else, his horn glowing all the while. He yanked a training dummy up, the dummy standing about a foot taller than me. Conjure summoned his ninjaken and swung it through the air.

"Alright. I'm going to teach you the principles of Zandatsu." he said. "Zandatsu has a bit of a loose translation, but it has three agreed-upon meanings. Cut and Take, Slice and Steal, or, my personal favorite, Stab n' Grab."

"How do you do it?" I asked. "What is Zandatsu, anyway? You haven't explained."

"I thought it was obvious. You simply Cut." he said, swinging his sword into the dummy's side, opening up nice, deep wound. He shoved his hand in and removed a hunk of stuffing fluff.

"And Take." I finished, understanding. I pressed my palms to the floor and summoned three more training dummies for me to use for practice.

"Any questions?" asked Conjure.

"Is this safe to use in the heat of the moment?" I asked. "It seems like it would be hard to use on a living target in a safe enough time.

Conjure stood before the dummies with his blade pointed outwards. He swung once to the right, slashing open each of the dummies and throwing his sword downwards, sticking it into the ground. He reached into the wounds and yanked out more fluff, all in the span of a few seconds.

"You'll learn." he said with a smirk.

"Was that supposed to be impressive?" I asked.

"Yes, it was." he answered, just as smugly as before.

"Well, mission accomplished. That was pretty amazing" I said with a small smile. "Will I be able to do that?"

Conjure snapped his fingers and made the dummies disappear, replacing them with brand new ones. I picked the one closest to me and placed the thin, round edge of my blade to the side of the dummy. I swung once, scraping open the skin but not cutting quite as deep as Conjure did. He went around behind me and placed his hand over mine. Conjure softly guided my blade, guiding my blade through the "flesh" of the dummy.

"It's not so much about how you cut, rather, where you cut." he explained. He positioned my sword just above where I swung. He released me and nodded for me to try again. I exhaled and readied myself. My blade swung through the air, cutting very deep into the dummy. If it were a real person, it's likely that I would have hit the spine. I shoved my hand into my new wound and grabbed a handful of fluff, attached to the inside of the dummy via a few threads of fabric.

"If this ever happens, it means you didn't swing hard enough." explained Conjure. He kicked his ninjaken into the air and grabbed it with his left hand. A single slice of the blade severed the simulated arteries.

"You are truly amazing." I said with awe. "Truly amazing!"

"Thanks." he said, dropping my hand suddenly. He seemed very upset, which is not something I'd expect after a legitimate compliment for his talent.

"Are you okay?" I asked, grabbing his shoulder softly. He shrugged me off almost angrily, then let out a groan of frustration.

"No, Twilight, I am not okay." he sighed. "I can't keep doing this."

"What do you mean?" I said. I've never seen him like this before, and I was more than a little worried. "Is this about War?"

"Twilight, I'm about to say something crazy. Every book I've read about this said that I should never say this to a friend under any circumstances." he said, closing his eyes. "Especially a friend who I'm living with. It's crazy and stupid and will likely ruin our friendship, but I can't keep this in anymore."

"What is it?" I asked, about to drop dead from anticipation. "I won't think of you any differently, I promise."

"Okay. Super crazy and super dumb, but here goes." he puffed, squeezing his eyes even tighter. "Twilight Sparkle, I think I'm in love with you."

You could hear a pin drop after that sentence. I couldn't even process what he said to me, let alone how I felt about it. I'd like to think that I sat there with a bit of a relaxed, laid-back expression, but I'm sure I looked more like a crazed One Direction fan-girl. I had to have misheard him. There's no way that's what he said. He must've said something about how... how I… I don't know, but it certainly wasn't what I thought I heard.

"You said I'm not swinging hard enough?" I asked. "Should I get a different sword?"

"Twilight?" said Conjure, opening his eyes in disbelief. He threw his hands up in shock of my nonchalance to whatever it was he actually said. "Did you hear me? I said I was in love with you."

"Could you maybe teach me the fundamentals behind it?" I requested, my brain staying as far away from Conjure's revelation as possible. "I learn better when I know the theory."

"Twilight! We have to talk about this now!" groaned Conjure, throwing his hands up even higher.

"Talk about what? My technique? Is my slicing off? Is there some sort of special stance I should be in?"

"Twilight! It's completely fine if you don't feel the same, but we _have_ to at least talk about it!" he exclaimed. I closed my mouth and turned my head to the left, refusing to make eye contact.

"I don't see exactly what there is to talk about." I panted. I felt like the walls were closing in on me, as if I was being crushed by the air I was breathing.

"Do you have similar feelings?" he asked.

"Well… I-I-I…."

"Twilight! You have to answer me honestly! If you don't feel the same, then just say it! I can't make you love me, nor do I want to, but I can't deal with this not knowing. I have to know what is and what can be, rather than think about what is not and what could have been."

"Conjure, this is not a very good time in my life to even consider romantic feelings about anypony." I said.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Are you serious?! We're in the middle of a war!" I shouted in outrage. "I go to sleep every night with the knowledge that the odds are against me waking up in the morning! I don't have time to understand who, or what, I want, or when and where I want it! I've never been more confused in my entire life."

"But that's just it. You said yourself that it's likely we'll be dead tomorrow, so why wait?" he asked.

"But what if it's only the fear of death that makes us think we're attracted to each other?" I asked, trying to make him see sense. For such a smart pony, he often missed the obvious. "That wouldn't be fair to either of us."

"All's fair in love and war." he pointed out. "And this is both."

"But… But… I-I…" I stuttered. I inhaled deeply and puffed outwards, regaining my composure. "Conjure, even if we could think about making this happen, we can't yet. You didn't follow the steps."

"What steps?!" shouted Conjure angrily.

"First, you have to take me out to dinner, then we have to do something a little more casual. We have our first kiss after about a week." I listed, remembering the book Cadance gave me a while ago about dating. "Then, we continue constant dating for about a month. Next, of course, is coitus, followed by the ceremonial meeting of the parents, in which I meet your family over dinner and you meet mine the next week. It's not until sometime after coitus are we supposed to confess feelings any deeper than just infatuation."

"Coitus?" snickered Conjure.

"It means to have se-"

"I know what coitus means, I just can't believe you used the word. I love that about you. You're so smart. The first girl who has ever truly gotten my attention on more than just a physical level."

It got silent after that. I just couldn't believe it. He was serious. I've always had this crush on him, but I never for a minute thought that it would be any more than just that- a dumb crush. But, in this moment, I realized I was wrong. I love Conjure, always have and always will. It was an unfair fact of life, but it was a fact of life nonetheless.

"Conjure, I really wish things were different." I said. "In a perfect world, we've already won this war and have started to think about a relationship. But this world is not perfect, far from it. If things were different, more rational and stable, then maybe, but as it stands now? One of us could be dead tomorrow. I'd rather not hurt you like that."

"The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you, no matter what." he quoted. "You just gotta find the people worth suffering for."

"Conjure, I can't focus on anything but this war right now." I said. "I can't commit to a relationship right now. I can't afford the distractions."

"Can you afford to make a promise?" he asked.

"What sort of promise?"

"Just promise me that… I don't even know!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up again. "You always do this to me! You make me feel like I have no clue how to do anything! Whenever I think about you, I question my judgement. I don't even know what to ask you to promise me."

"Here's what I'll promise." I said with a small smile. "When we get out of here and to Equestria, I'll let you take me out to dinner."

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." he chuckled. "I suppose that's fair. Come on, then. Let's get out of here."

* * *

I gripped Conjure's ninjaken tightly in my right hand, leaning against against the tall skyscraper behind me. Conjure had been gone for over twenty minutes, and I was starting to worry. He said that if he wasn't back in half an hour I should assume the worse and go home. I couldn't just leave him though. I wish I had the diaries, but my phone was charging and I can't very well carry around a desktop.

"Where are you?" I said to nopony, chewing on my fingernail. "Are you trying to look impressive? Show up just in the nick of time?"

I looked down at my watch, gauging the time again, almost as if it would've changed significantly since I checked it ten seconds ago. He'd been gone for twenty-nine minutes exactly, and I'd have no choice but to leave soon. My last minute went on for what felt like forever, and it quickly became two minutes, then three, then four, then…

_POP!_

The loud, bright burst of green light startled me, and I drew Conjure's sword out of reflex. I lowered it almost immediately, realizing that it was nothing more than Conjure returning to me. He was bearing the gift of a netted changeling, one who kicked and squealed constantly. I sighed in relief and slid the sword back into the sheath that he had attached to my hip a while ago. Conjure smiled happily at me, then threw down the changeling.

"Well? I gave you a better sword for this, so you shouldn't have the artery problem." said Conjure. He grabbed the net and willed his horn to glow. Green light enveloped the net, evaporating it into dust. The changeling scrambled to it's hooves, transforming his hands into sharp, bladed weapons. Conjure drew his ninjaken from nowhere, slicing off the tip of the changeling's horn. He gave it a kick, pushing the thing towards me.

"Okay." I gulped. "Explain to me why I can't use a scalpel again?"

"You won't always be able to." answered Conjure. "This is just for practice."

"Surrender, Equestrians!" shouted the changeling.

"Who are you threatening?" asked Conjure. "I just captured you, didn't I?"

"What took you so long, anyway?" I asked. "I was getting worried."

"I couldn't find him. You really didn't have to worry, you know. I was joking earlier, and I figured you'd know that. Unless that's just an excuse to say you missed your boyfriend."

"You're _not_ my boyfriend." I said, blushing. "You're my… my… my potential-boyfriend-to-be! We're not together yet!"

"You will not ignore me!" shouted the changeling angrily. I placed my hand on the hilt of my borrowed sword, waiting for the perfect moment. I spread my hooves wide, shoulder length apart like Conjure taught me. I strafed to the left, the changeling falling into a battle stance and strafing to my right. Good. He was doing just as Conjure said he would. I stepped forward slightly, easing the ninjaken halfway out of it's sheath and widening my stance slightly. The changeling eyed me down and time seemed to stop. One of two things would happen now. Either the changeling would rush forward and attack my neck, or he would complete a circle and try to escape. If he did the latter, Conjure would be there to stop him. If he did the former… Well, I hope I'm fast enough. The changeling and I stood in a staring match for a moment, both of us daring the other to blink. Suddenly, the changeling lunged forward, jumping into the air and slashing down at my neck. Time slowed, and I swung into action. I yanked the ninjaken completely from it's sheath and swung up, then down, hitting the changeling with the hilt and bringing him down to Earth. He staggered, leaving himself wide open. I sliced once to the right, opening up a shallow wound in his gut, and again to the left, opening a deep gash in his side. Green blood began to spill onto the blade and floor as the changeling stumbled backwards. I jumped forward and shoved my left hand into the deeper wound, feeling around the squishy interior of his body, a low, growling scream escaping the changelings lips.

"Ew! This is so gross!" I squealed, feeling around for his liver. "Sweet Celestia, this is disgusting! I've dissected small animals before, and a pony once, but never something still alive."

"I know it's gross, but you have to touch the liver so you can teleport it out." said Conjure. I let my fingers explore the insides of the changeling, feeling many small organ and muscle tissues, but not the liver. Finally, I grasped the squishy, disgusting triangle-shaped organ, and prepared the teleportation spell. I heard a faint _POP!_ from inside my victim and removed my hand, nearly vomiting at the sight of my neon-green-blood-coated arm.

"Disgusting." I said. "Rarity must be turning in her grave."

"Why?" gasped the changeling, dropping to his knees. "You Equestrians don't attack us. You defend yourself, but you almost never come picking a fight."

"Well, you attacked me." I said.

"And I'm no Equestrian." said Conjure, kicking the changeling onto it's stomach. "Do you know how many friends I've lost because of you and your boss? We didn't pick fights with you guys, but now we don't have a choice. It's time to fight back. We're going to do the thing humans do best."

"What's that?" gasped my victim.

"Survive." Conjure took his ninjaken and plunged it into the changeling's neck, spurting green blood upwards. A low gurgle emitted from the changeling, and he dropped limp, most likely dead from blood-loss. If not, he was definitely paralyzed from Conjure's blade shattering his spine and tearing some nerves.

"That was certainly… different than the dummies." I said. "I still need a heart, a kidney or two, and a brain would be lovely."

"Hold on." said Conjure. He lifted the changeling from the ground with his magic and pinned him to the wall. Large, heavy nails appeared in the changeling's wrists and ankles, stabbing him into the building. Conjure summoned a paint brush, a lighter, and a gallon of gasoline.

"What are you doing?" I asked. He ignored me, focusing on pouring the gas on the changeling and not himself. When it was good and doused, Conjure dipped the paintbrush into the leftover gasoline, using it to paint some letters above the changeling's head. He flicked the lighter, igniting a bright orange flame. He lit the changeling, then his letters, setting them all aflame and allowing me to read what it was that he painted. D.O.H.

"Defenders of Harmony." he said. "I hope somepony sees this. It's time they understand that we're not going to lose. Hopefully, this will make either Sombra or Chrysalis upset."

"Are you sure it's wise to make them mad?" I asked, wrinkling my nose at the awful stench of burning changeling flesh. It smelled like wet dog and urine, which is not what I expected.

"No, it's not wise. But, this is what War would've done." said Conjure, looking down sadly. He shook himself back to reality, taking on a bright, almost jovial smile. "Let's go, Twi. We need more organs, right?"

"Let's go home so I can wash my hand off." I said, shuddering at the weird feeling of changeling blood. "We have to hurry. It's starting to scab."

"No. Leave it on. Scare the next couple of changelings, so that we can get a sample of changeling adrenaline."

"You think it might be different from pony or human adrenaline?"

"Maybe, maybe."

I shook my left arm around, getting used to the feeling of blood coating the entirety of my forearm. I bent my bloody arm upwards, making an L with it. I took the soiled ninjaken and ran it against my arm, blade up so as to not cut my self. The green that was painting the blade wiped onto my arm. It was better to have a bloody arm than a bloody blade, after all. I twirled the ninjaken a few times and slowly eased it into my sheath.

"Can I keep this?" I asked. "I'm growing rather fond of it. It feels good in my hand."

"That's what I love about Kate and Anna." he said with a smile.

"You did not name them Kate and Anna." I laughed.

"It's funny! Kate and Anna! Because they're katanas!" he said with an even bigger smile. "Well, they're technically ninjaken, but most people don't know that, they just call them katanas."

I grabbed him by the collar with my right hand and brought him closer to me. I leaned forward and kissed him on the lips, shock and confusion apparent on of our faces. We break away after a second, both of us out panting breathlessly.

"Yeah, you can keep the sword." whispered Conjure, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "Um… Twilight?"

"Yeah, I know what I said. It goes against everything I know, but I realized that it's time to throw away the recipe, and make the souffle from scratch." I said.

"What made you feel that way?" he asked.

"That terrible joke about your swords. It's so bad that it's good. Conjure, you're the most amazing person I've ever met. I never said it, but yes, of course I feel the same way. I love you, Conjure, and I just couldn't contain it anymore. Princess Celestia would flail me if she saw how hastily and impulsively I'm acting."

"So… What were we doing again?" asked Conjure.

"Changeling Zandatsu." I supplied.

"Right. Well, Twi the Ripper, let's get going."


	18. Twilight's Diary: Entry 3

NAME: Twilight Sparkle

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Twi, Tara, Sarah Jones Smith,Twi the Ripper

AGE: 22 years

DIARY ENTRY: #18

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Pathological Perfectionism

STATUS: Healthy

* * *

I sat at my lab table, with a changeling heart on a stainless steel tray and my instruments to my left. I adjusted my respirator and grabbed the bottle of anthrax-saline mixture and poured it onto the purplish-black heart. I cast a few alteration spells on the virus, as well as an acceleration spell to speed up the process of it's growth. The virus would, hopefully, cause each muscle cell in the changeling body to liquify and expand to consume other cells, causing mini-explosions to rise through the body. It was acquired through a combination of anthrax, pollio, and a long-dead unicorn virus known as Brittle Horn Flu. I combined these three afflictions and added some of my own magic to alter the genetic makeup of them, combining them into one super-virus which I have named Nova. At least, that's the base name. I'm actually testing the fifth variation of it, so this is Nova-5.

"So close!" I muttered to myself, watching the changeling heart and waiting for something to happen. You see, my changeling-killing virus Nova had one fatal flaw. It doesn't actually affect changelings. Changeling antibodies were incredibly responsive, and very hard to fool. I disregarded the heart and moved on to my next tray, a vial of green blood as supplied by Conjure's teleportation spell from the next room. I used my horn to scan through the blood, rich with lymphocytes, the antibody producing cells. I could replicate the antibodies easily, and then I could just use them to mask my next version of Nova, Nova-6. My horn began to glow and a new tray, this one with petri dishes of stem cells. I sent a magical surge through them, telling them to convert into these changeling antibodies. I mixed it with a fresh vial of anthrax, pollio, and Brittle Horn Flu, along with some saline to give it a liquid form. I summoned a large, magical, temperature controlled vat into the middle of the floor. I poured my little vial into the large, 30 gallon tub and activated the spell on it. It would duplicate the virus until the vat was full. I pushed the pressurized lid on and screwed it shut.

I walked up to the door and punched in the thirty digit code, unlocking the door to the decontamination pod. A mid-sized bathroom with a drain in the center of the floor, a hazardous material disposal can, and a shower head hanging from the ceiling. I shed my hazmat suit, along with my respirator and other clothing, and deposited it into the trash can, nearly slipping on the slightly wet tile floor. This would be my third trip out of my lab, and this would be just as unpleasant as the others. I grabbed the shower head and pressed the blue button on it, dousing me with ice-cold water. I rinsed off quickly, then pressed the next button down, a red one which poured out hot water. I summoned a bar of soap, and used it to lather myself up. After I rinsed the suds off, I prepared myself for the worst of this. I pressed the last button, a green one, and squeezed my eyes shut.

"Ow!" I squealed, feeling the acid dance onto my skin and fur. I heard the hiss of my fur being eaten away, and I had to keep my mental clock running. I needed to get out in thirty seconds, or the acid would cause long-lasting damage to my skin. I kept a count in my head, and, when I reached the thirty seconds, quickly rushed out from underneath the shower head. I summoned a towel and wrapped it around myself. The acid burned through some of the fur on my right arm, but I could fix that later. I pushed open the final door leading out, and stepped into the hallway, leaving a faint trail of acid on the floor. Conjure swooped in from the left, clearing up the trail with his magic.

"Twilight, are you okay?" he asked, walking with me to my room. I nodded and let him lead me upstairs.

"I'm fine. Just a little bit of weak acid." I said.

"You know, you don't have to do that, right?"

"Can't be too careful." I answered. "Just imagine if a little bit of anthrax left that room and was distributed into the air of the house. Not only would we all die painful deaths, but we'd be putting all of Earth into jeopardy."

"But is it worth dousing yourself with hydrochloric acid?" he asked.

"It's severely diluted. Only thing is that I'm a little sore." I complained. Conjure scooped me off of my hooves and carried me the rest of the way to my room, smiling at me cheerfully. He opened my door with his hoof and placed me gently down onto my bed.

"How's the virus working?" asked Conjure, leaning against the bookshelf to my left.

"The Nova-6 virus was one of the toughest things I've ever done." I said. "But it was all worth it. The pollio and anthrax work well together, and BH Flu prevents their magic from countering it. As soon as we have enough of it, we have to go to a centerpoint of town and release it. The casualties should be near-immediate, and those who survive the initial onslaught will be severely weakened. Intense muscular dystrophy and the similar."

"When that's all said and done, we need to contact the civilians, right?" asked Conjure. "What do we do about that?"

"I suppose we can do something similar to what Sombra did. Hijack a television broadcast, maybe throw in a holographic projection if possible."

Conjure nodded and looked down, almost as if he was thinking. I could almost feel the sorrow emanating from him, although I couldn't quite pinpoint the source. Was it War? Or maybe it was me. I must've confused him. To be frank, I confused myself just as much. We avoided eye contact, each of us lost in our own respective thought process. It was starting to get awkward…

"Hey, I have some books behind you that I brought from Equestria." I said, breaking the silence. "There's no way you've read some of them. If you want to give them a look, be my guest."

"Thanks, Twi." said Conjure with a huge smile. He turned and squatted, looking through my bookshelf. "Let's see… Fantastic Creatures and Where to Find Them, Fifty Shades of Neigh… I'll stay away from that one. Um… You have the entire Twilight series?"

"Yes. I don't really read them, though. I thought they were about something else." I lied. He must never know about my Edward-obsession.

"I already know about your Edward-obsession. War told me all about it." he laughed. "I was just curious if I could borrow them for a moment."

I nodded, and he snatched four books from my shelf. His horn became shrouded in green light, and he vanished from my room with a loud _POP_! I sighed, wondering where he could've gone as I dropped my towel and summoned some clothing to me. I quickly slipped into my undergarments, a purple blouse, and a dark violet skirt. Just as I was finished getting dressed, there was another _POP_!, and Conjure was back with my books in hand. He dropped them gently on my bed and opened the cover, revealing the signature of… Stephenie Meyer!

"Thank me later." he said with a smile.

"You… You… How?!" I squealed with excitement. This was the best! Stephenie Meyer signed my books!

"I just popped in, explained the situation, and she was more than happy to sign them." explained Conjure. "Look, there's a little message near the bottom."

"Twilight Sparkle, you and your friends are our last hope." I read aloud. "Stay strong and shine."  
"She said that she was inspired by us." Conjure continued. "When this is all said and done, she's going to write another series based off of us."

"This is great! So, so amazing!" I squealed, hugging the books tightly. I closed them up, and replaced them on my shelf. "Come on. We have to report to Fluttershy."

"And you never want to keep Commandoshy waiting." said Conjure with a smirk. He offered me his hand, and when I accepted, he led me out of my room, through the halls and past the other bedrooms, and down the staircase. I couldn't help but think about the virus, and our plan. Not necessarily the chance of success, but, rather, the morality of it. We've been fighting these last three years, but this is a bit of a leap. We're going from guerilla tactics to straight-up biological warfare. What if something went wrong and we killed innocents? Would history forgive us for that, if we did indeed eradicate the enemy? Even if there is no collateral damage, I'd rather not be the one who caused the genocide of all of changeling-kind. What would the survivors say about me? There would be stories and legends about Twilight the Ripper, The End of Changelings. Just thinking about it made me nauseous. Luckily, I didn't have much time to think about it before we were in the training room, at the war table with Fluttershy. She had her head down, slumped on the table, and there was a weird, grumbling sound coming from her. It's bizarre, but it almost sounds like she was…

"Is she snoring?" asked Conjure. He put his hand on Fluttershy's shoulder and shook her gently.

"Get away!" shouted Fluttershy, jerking awake. She grabbed a handgun from her lap and fired aimlessly, some shots just barely missing Conjure. I grabbed his shirt and dragged him to the ground, waiting until her ammo ran out.

CLICK!

"Huh?" asked Fluttershy. She dropped her smoking gun to the ground and looked around with concern.

"What the hell?!" asked Conjure, jumping back to his hooves. I could practically see the steam pouring from his ears.

"Conjure, calm down." I said, rising to my hooves next to him.

"No! I will not calm down! She almost killed us! I thought she was supposed to be with us, that she was our leader! Are you insane?!"

"Conjure!" I shouted, gripping his wrist. "Look at her!"

Fluttershy was not looking good. Her eyes were bloodshot red, and she was trembling very severely. She got from her seat and bent down to pick up her gun, dropping it three times before finally getting a grip on it.

"W-what?" she asked. "What's going on?"

"Are you okay?" I asked. "You don't look too good."

"No shit, Twilight. I'm a goddamned train wreck, but what do you care?" said Fluttershy. "What do you want?"

"How long have you been awake?" asked Conjure.

"Not that it's any of your business, I haven't slept in a couple of days. You see, unlike you, my time is too valuable to waste on things like sleep. Unlike you, I'm actually doing something productive, instead of using magic for a cheap trick to impress your girlfriend. Unlike you, I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing."

"And, unlike me, you nearly killed your last two allies." snarled Conjure. "What happened to you? No sleep? Explosive, sporadic flashbacks? Unintentional friendly fire? It sounds to me like you're suffering from PTSD."

"PTSD?" asked Fluttershy, as if that was the most ridiculous thing she ever heard.

"It stands for Post-traumatic stress disorder."

"I know what it stands for, asshole. You don't think we have war vets in Equestria?" asked Fluttershy angrily. "I just don't have it."

"Fluttershy, I hate to say it, but you do have the telltale signs." I said. "You can't sleep because of night terrors, correct? Given what you've been through, I can't really blame you. We've all been through a lot, but you have a unique outlook on the situation. As leader, you naturally feel responsible for our failures."

"Listen, I'm fine." said Fluttershy adamantly. "What's up with your virus?"

"We're not done here, Commandoshy." said Conjure. "We have to get to the root of this, so we can work on fixing it."

"There's nothing to fix, jackass. Give me the report of your progress. Now."

"Why can't you sleep, Shy? What keeps you up at night?"

"Conjure…" I said quietly. It's like I wasn't even there. Fluttershy slammed her palm onto the table and stood up, face to face with Conjure.

"It's none of your business!" growled Fluttershy. "What's the deal with this virus?"

"Stop dodging the question. Tell me why you're so hung up. Is it Silver?" pressed Conjure.

"I'm not-"

"Or are you angry about Pinkie? Rarity?"

"Shut up." growled Fluttershy.

"Um, Conjure?" I whispered. "Let it go."

"No. I need to know. I can't trust your safety to someone who is mentally unstable." said Conjure.

"Shut up." repeated Fluttershy.

"What has you so guilty? What were you dreaming about?"

"I don't-"

"If you don't tell us, me and Twilight are out of here."

"Rainbow Dash!" sobbed Fluttershy, dropping her head back down onto the table. "It's because of Rainbow Dash!"

"What about her?" I asked stupidly.

"She's dead, and it's all my fault! I-I couldn't save her! I c-couldn't pay her back for protecting me! And you two! You two are in danger, and you're both too stupid to realise that you'd be safer alone!"

"There's no place safer right now than under Commandoshy's roof." said Conjure.

"My dream, it was about you two." sobbed Fluttershy. "You two went out to town and when I went to go find you guys… So much blood. Then, the changelings came out, and Sombra himself… so much blood."

"You don't have to worry about us, Fluttershy." I said, hugging her tightly. "We'll be okay, so long as we stick together."

"That's it, though." she said bitterly. "What do you think Pinkie Pie said before she died? And Rarity? And Applejack, and RD, and War, and Silver?! We've been saying that for a while now! It's always 'We can do anything if we work together' or 'Our friends will come through for us' or some other bullshit, but when it gets down to it, we're screwed! What chance do we even have at this point?"

"Fluttershy, it's time to stop feeling sorry for yourself." said Conjure. "There'll be plenty of time for self-pity when we're in Equestria."

"Don't you get it, jackass? We're not getting to Equestria! We'll be lucky if we make it to the morning!"

"Yeah, and we've been pretty lucky so far."

"How do you figure? All of our friends are dead." said Fluttershy.

"We're not." I jutted in. "We should be thankful that we survived."

"You two just don't get it, do you? Maybe you're thankful that you survived, but I'm not. I'd rather be dead! I keep hoping that Sombra finally gets bored of playing with me and just slits my throat. The only reason I'm still moving, is because I have a job to do, and that job is to make sure you guys are safe. As soon as my work is done, so am I."

"Fluttershy…" I whispered. I felt awful, like there were ferrets in my stomach. She truly felt responsible for all of this, and there's nothing Conjure or myself could say to change her mind. I couldn't say anything, really. No words could alleviate the pain that she must be feeling. That didn't change the fact that we needed her to calm down so that we can get the job done. I'm sure that once we got to Equestria, we could get her some help. But, for now, she would have to grit her teeth and bear with it.

"Damn." said Conjure. "I'm sorry. I didn't realise."

"Yeah, whatever." sighed Fluttershy, raising her head. "How's the virus going?"

"We're ready." I said. "Suit up, guys. It's time to go."

* * *

Conjure attached the nozzle from the tank on my back to my mask. The mask would ensure that I breathed in nice, clean air, as opposed to my Nova-6. While it would mainly only affect changelings, I was afraid of the Brittle Horn Flu wreaking havoc on my magical systems. He handed me a sort of hose, which was connected to a different tank on my back.

"The red one is your air, right?" asked Conjure.

"No!" I shouted, my voice muffled by my respiration gear. "Red is the virus! Oh my… What did you-"

"Relax, Twi. I'm just joking with you." laughed Conjure. "Blue is air, red is Nova-6. You ready?"

"Yes." I answered, sighing in relief. I zipped up my hazmat suit and adjusted my mask. I smiled nervously and prepared my teleportation spell. My body began to jitter from the concentration of magic, and there was a bright flash of lavender light. I had teleported, no longer in the basement of our house. Now, I was atop the tallest building in the city, many feet taller than most buildings in Equestria. I was at the top, narrowly balancing on the spire-like antenna. I inhaled deeply, breathing in my chemically clean air. My finger pressed against the trigger of the hose, and thick, greenish-yellow gas began to billow outwards from it's end. I painted heavy strokes of my gas, watching it fall to the ground and spread outwards. It took me no longer than two minutes to disperse my thirty gallons of lethal changeling virus evenly across the city. When I was sure that my tank was empty, I prepared another teleportation spell. I reappeared inside my acid shower stall, and started stripping my potentially-contaminated clothes for discardal.

When the possible-contagions were all confined and disposed in a safe manner, I took a quick acid shower, found a new outfit, and left the bathroom. My destination was the training room, and I arrived to see Conjure fast at work. He was fidgeting with a video camera and an antenna, his horn glowing all the while. This wasn't just a camera. It was a big, newscast-like camera, for important broadcasts like the one we were about to make.

"Twilight, are you ready?" asked Conjure, not looking up from his work.

"Ready for what?" I asked."

"The broadcast. You know? The one where you go and ask the humans to share some of their magic?"

"What?! Why do I have to do it?! Fluttershy is in charge, she should do it!" I complained. I hated being center of attention. The only pony who has worse stagefright than me is, ironically, Fluttershy. But she changed, she's tougher now!

"She's not the same, Twilight." explained Conjure. "She's much rougher and gruffer, not the Fluttershy that the people would know. You, however, are same as you've always been. They'll react better. Besides, Fluttershy needs to sleep, at least for a little bit."

"You do it!"

"It has to be you. People don't know who I am. For all they know, I'm working with Sombra. They know what Twilight Sparkle looks like, and they'll trust Twilight Sparkle, because Sombra went out of his way to brand Twilight Sparkle as an enemy. I only know one Twilight Sparkle. If there was another, I'd ask her to do it, but, alas, there is not. Suck it up and get it over with."

I adjusted my blouse nervously, then summoned a little black bow tie and a plastic brush. I used my magic to tie the bow tie around my neck, and used my hands to brush my mane. I straightened my skirt and stepped in front of the camera uneasily. This was the only way this could be done. A television appeared next to the camera, so that I could see it. On the screen was a very stressed, very tired looking purple unicorn. I hope the camera got my good side.

"You're on in three… two… one!" said Conjure.

"People of Earth." I said, sighing one more time. "I am Twilight Sparkle. I am here to ask you a favor. King Sombra has stepped out of the shadows and has stolen your world away from you, and he plans to do the same to my world. He has a borrowed army of shape-changing creatures known as changelings. I just spread a virus that will kill most of them, if not all."

I felt confident. That was a good sign, confidence. I loosened my tie and felt power rise through me.

"We are fighting back. Me, Fluttershy, Conjure, we are all fighting back! But here's the thing. We don't know how much longer we can fight. We need to get home, just for long enough for help from Princess Celestia, one of the strongest things to ever live. She can, and will, help you, but you have to help us first. We need your energy. Please, and this is not a joke, I need you all to get to your feet right now. Get to your feet, and raise your hands, and just push upwards with your spirit. Make your soul push forward. Don't worry if nothing happens, you won't be able to tell. I need all of you, men, women, children, just please. This is how you fight back. This is how you take back your world. This is how you defend yourselves!"

"Footage is cut, Twilight." said Conjure. "Sombra intercepted it, but not before you got the message out. You were great!"

"T-thanks." I said, losing all feeling in my body. I dropped to the floor, only to rise back up immediately. My hands moved by themselves, swinging and smacking at nothing. My horn began to glow purple, and Conjure's ninjaken fell into my right hand.

"What are you doing, Twi?" he asked, uneasily.

"No one defies the King of Shadows." I growled. I took the sword and plunged it into my heart, spurting blood outwards and sending a sharp, unending pain through my midsection. Conjure's screams melded with my own, and I fell to the ground, my mind being overtaken by shadows. But, wait… No. Not overtaken. My mind wasn't being swallowed. It was being… held hostage. It was becoming hard to think of anything except Sombra. King Sombra danced on my eyes until I could see nothing more than his face.

* * *

NAME: Twilight Sparkle

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Twi, Tara, Sarah Jones Smith,Twi the Ripper

AGE: 22 years

DIARY ENTRY: #18

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Pathological Perfectionism

STATUS: Deceased, Possessed


	19. Conjure's Diary: Entry 1

NAME: Isaiah Simmons

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Conjure, Seiko Akira

AGE: 20 years

DIARY ENTRY: #19

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Pathological Perfectionism, Dysthymia,

STATUS: Healthy, Depressed

* * *

Terror and confusion stabbed through me as quickly and sharply as my ninjaken stabbed through Twilight. I rushed over to her as quickly as I could. Before I could even grab her, she jumped back to her feet, her eyes glowing blood red. She grasped at my sword, buried hilt-deep in her chest, and yanked it out, spurting blood onto the floor and yanking a scream out of Twilight's gut.

"What are you doing?!" I asked, starting the healing spell.

"It's not me." she said through gritted teeth. "I can't control myself." Her head fell limp, then shot back up, a new expression on her face replacing her pain. Now, she looked annoyed, angry and arrogant.

"That was me." she growled, her voice deep and guttural. The voice of a madman. The voice of King Sombra. "I do not appreciate that little charade. I expect an apology."

"What did you do to her?!" I shouted angrily. I summoned my other ninjaken, unaware as to what I was going to do with it.

"what did you plan to accomplish by sending out such a distress signal?" asked Sombra, ignoring my question. "You were trying to get to Equestria, yes?"

"And if we are?"

"I urge you to do it. I'm sure that the humans have given you enough magic by now. Give it a shot."

"Stop wasting my time, Sombra. Let Twilight go." I said. Twilight brought the ninjaken to her neck and pressed the blade into her skin, a faint trickle of blood flowing.

"Do it or she dies!" growled Sombra. Shocked, I extended my palm, feeling the nearby magical energy fly around the air. As I absorbed the magic into my hand, the sheer power, vibration, and slight pain flying through my arm, I thought of a plan. There had to be some sort of counterspell I could use, some way to fix her. If there wasn't… There just has to be. Finally, when there was no more magic to absorb and my slight pain had risen to almost tear-jerking levels, I released it all outwards. There was a loud WHOOSH!, like a huge gust of wind, and the air seemed to cave in on itself, revealing a greyish, silver rip floating in the middle of the air, ten feet tall and five feet wide.

"There." I said, ignoring the trickle of blood flowing from my nose. "Now let her go."

"Fine." he growled. Twilight's head fell limp again, and when she jerked back awake, fear was apparent on her face. She stumbled backwards, confused by the appearance of the portal.

"Fluttershy!" I shouted. "Get down here! The portal is open!"

"Shit! Really?" she called back. "Damn! I'm on my way!"

A sharp blade cut through my chest, sending searing pain through me. Twilight jumped back, her ninjaken covered in my blood, and began to circle for her next attack.

"Twilight?" I asked, grasping my wound.

"Get away, Conjure!" she cried, tears welling up. "I can't control my body!"

As if I needed more proof, she leapt forward again and stabbed her blade through my stomach. Twilight twisted the blade slowly in my gut, my scream vibrating through the house. I pressed my palm against her forehead and surged magic forward. She flew backwards, ripping the sword and another scream out of me. Her body fell just short of the portal, and she rose to her feet once again.

"What the hell is all of this screaming?" asked Fluttershy, flying into the room. As soon as she saw the blood spilling from my stomach and Twilight's bloody sword, she fell silent. Twilight rushed at me again, but this time. I was prepared. I deflected her slash and kicked her back, as gently as I could while still getting the desired effect. She staggered back and attacked once more. I deflected slash after slash, slice after slice, defending against her seemingly never-ending onslaught.

"Conjure." said Twilight, slicing at my chest for what had to be the twelfth time. "You have to stop me."

"I'm trying to think of a counterspell." I said, flitting through spells in my head while still defending myself from Twilight.

"You know what I mean. Conjure, you have to-"

"Shut up!" I cried, deflecting another slash. I was getting tired, while she seemed to have infinite stamina.

"We both know you have to do it!" said Twilight. I really didn't want to hear her say the words.

"I will fix you!"

"You can't! You have to-"

"Don't say it!" I shouted, fear being the most prominent tone in my voice.

"You have to kill me." said Twilight. "Before I kill you."

"No! I will fix you!"

"There's no way to fix me, Conjure. I'm already dead. Sombra's possession spell is anchoring my soul to my body, so as soon as you break that spell, I die. Just get it over with."

She slashed at my leg, cutting my ankle deeply. Her blade buried itself in my shoulder, then my side, then my stomach. I couldn't defend against all of them, not without killing her, and I would not kill her!

"Conjure, it's time to let go." said Twilight, smiling slightly at me. She stabbed me through the middle, impaling and skewering me. Blood ran down her blade as quickly as pain ran through my body. She was right. It had to end. I pulled myself off of her sword and healed my wounds quickly with my magic. I jumped forward and slashed at her stomach, opening a shallow wound that leaked a bit of red. I sliced my sword again and again, cutting her arms and legs, this time she the one who couldn't defend herself. With each slash, I backed Twilight up a step or two. I worked her back towards the wall, until she could go nowhere else. I swung my sword at her wrist, severing her sword hand, and I pinned her against the wall with my left hand. I pressed the tip of my sword to her chest, just hovering over her heart.

"You can do it, Conjure." said Twilight.

"No, I can't." I said, fighting to keep my tears in. I was losing that fight. "I'm going to miss you, Twilight. I don't know how I lived without you, but I don't want to find out. Please, don't make me do this."

"Conjure, it's okay. Really, it is." she said, reassuring me. "You'll be okay. Now, I'm sure we're both too smart to believe in the existence of deities or life after death, but maybe we're wrong. Maybe we'll see each other again."

"I don't believe in Heaven or Hell, but maybe." I said, tears raining down my face. "I've never wanted to be wrong more than I do right now."

Twilight smiled at me, tears rolling down her cheek as well. She leaned forward and kissed me softly. As our lips touched, she grabbed my wrist and plunged my sword through her heart. Blood spurted onto my chest as her body slumped to the ground, the life finally exiting her body. Or so I thought.

"You finally killed her." growled Sombra's voice, emanating from her fallen body. "You're dwindling number decrease once more."

"And you've come to brag about killing her, I bet." I said bitterly. "You can't count that one. I killed her, not you. In fact, most of us died by someone else's hand. Rarity, Aj, War, Twilight. You only got Pinkie, Silver, and RD."

"I don't wish to brag. I wish to give you a warning." he said. "That portal you have there? You can use it, but if you do, every living thing on this planet will be eradicated. Will you trade 7,404,976,837 lives for your own safety?"

"If you want us to stay, why would you force me to open the portal?" I asked.

"I don't necessarily want you to stay. I want to test your resolve."

"Why? Why are you doing any of this? What do you gain? It's not about money or anything that simple is it? Why?"

"It's not about gain." growled Sombra. "It's about sending a message. A message to you and your friends. Or, should I say, friend? As in only one? Because that's all you have now. You have your one friend, and she's starting to break. I'm going to kill you both, and the only thing stopping me is my sense of humor. I'm going to give you a while to make your choice. Your safety or the safety of your people? Which will you pick?"

Twilight's body was shrouded in red light, and it rose from the ground. There was an intense magic coming from it, hot magic melting her from the inside out. Twilight's corpse disintegrated into ash, and was blown away by a gust of wind.

"Conjure." whispered someone from behind me. It took me a moment to realize that it was Fluttershy.

"Why didn't you help me?" I asked quietly.

"I-I-I I just… froze." she stammered.

"Yeah, you froze! I bet you did!" I shouted, my blood close to boiling. "You just froze and let Twilight die!"

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry? You're sorry? I'm sorry! I'm sorry that I have to look at you! I'm sorry that I had to be the one to kill the love of my life, that's what I'm sorry about! I'm sorry that you are still alive, Fluttershy, and still have the audacity to call yourself my leader and my friend!"

"Conjure…" she said quietly.

"I hate you!" I shouted. "I hate you with every fiber of my being! I hope you choke in your sleep, I hope you drown in a lake, I hope you die in the scariest, most painful way you can imagine, and I hope I'm there to laugh!"

"You're right." she said. "You're right to hate me."

"I know I'm right! You're the one who's wrong! You felt bad for yourself, but you didn't think about Twilight, did you? You could've helped me restrain her! We could've saved her! But because you were too busy being scared and depressed, I had to kill her! The only girl I've ever loved, the only I girl I _will_ ever love is dead and it's all your fault!"

"It is."

"You know what?" I said bitterly. "Fuck you. I'm going to Equestria, and you better pray to Celestia that we never see each other again."

At that, Fluttershy seemed to snap back into reality. She jumped in front of the portal and shielded it with her arms and wings.

"You can't." she said. "Sombra will kill everyone."

"I don't care." I said.

"Everyone you care about is going to die!"

"Everyone I care about is already dead. Move it, bitch, before I add you to the list."

"Conjure, you need to stand down." she said gruffly. "I will not hesitate to put you down if it compromises the safety of the innocent."

"You're willing to kill the only remnant of a friend you have to protect people you barely know?"

"You're damned right."

"Fine." I said. "I had to make sure you were worthy of leading me. What now, Flutter-bitch?"

"I don't know." she said.

"Yeah, I didn't think you did. It was more of a rhetorical question than anything."

"Hey, I thought I passed your test!"

"I was only pretending to leave. My hate is genuine." I said, fire burning in my chest. "I hope Sombra kills you before I kill him, for your sake. Because whatever he could do to you, I'm going to do a hundred-fold."

"And I suppose I deserve that." she sighed. "How do we even deal with someone like Sombra? He's really willing to kill everyone if we defy him. It's insane."

"And God said unto Noah, 'The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.'" I quoted.

"What?"

"It's a Bible verse. I don't even believe in God. If I did before, I sure as hell don't now. What sort of God just sits back and lets this happen?"

"Then why are you quoting the Bible?" asked Fluttershy.

"Because I can, okay?" I said angrily. "Come up with a shitty plan that'll probably get one of us killed yet?"

"Why don't you figure something out for a change? Since you won't follow what I say anyway?"

"Funny you should say that, because I have a plan."

"What is it?" she asked, nearly biting her nails in anticipation.

"I'm going to kill Sombra." I declared.

"If we couldn't do it with nine people, what makes you think you can do it solo?"

"Bite me, bitch." I said. "Bite me until your teeth hurt. You don't think I thought of the unlikeliness of my victory one-on-one? Sombra is immortal, and I just thought of a way to kill him."

"What? How?" asked Fluttershy.

"Okay, I'm very smart and you're pretty much the opposite, so I'll try to use terms even you can understand. I'm going to open a black hole in his lap."

"Come again?"

"See, I was afraid of this." I said. "A black hole is a circle thing in space that sucks up everything in it's path."

"I know what a black hole is, asshole, I just don't understand how you're going to make one."

"Using complex magic that you couldn't understand. Don't worry your pretty little head, child, it's grown-up business. Go play with your toys."

"You realize that I'm almost a year older than you, right?" she asked. "But, whatever. Open the black hole."

"What?!" I asked. "How… What… I can't just… One does not simply open a black hole!"

"Why not?"

"Why not?! Because! It's complex magic at work! I have to find a point in the room with the most gravitational pull, then I have to confine it, then I have to amplify it, _then_ I have to put a containment field on the building to prevent it from spreading, plus I have to maintain eye contact and concentration, so I'll need to refresh my meditations…"

"But you made it seem so simple." she said quietly.

"Simple and easy are not the same thing, although I suppose you wouldn't know that, seeing as you're both." I said.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I'm implying that you're a stupid whore, and your lack of understanding of that proves at least the first part of my observation."

"How long before you can do this black hole thing?" asked Fluttershy, trying her best not to snap my neck. Or try, at least.

"I'll open the black hole when I'm good and ready to open the black hole. If you want to be useful, for once, I need you to go scout the city." I said. "Go make sure that Twilight wasn't wasting her time with that virus."

"How would I know if the virus worked?" she asked.

"Gee, I dunno. Maybe you'll think of something when you're stepping over the changeling corpses littering the street that will be in your path if the Nova-6 worked."

"Oh. Duh."

"Yeah, that about sums you up." I shot.

"Are you ever going to stop being terrible to me?" asked Fluttershy.

'"Are you ever going to stop deserving it?"

"Probably not."

I sat there quietly for a minute. I was being pretty extreme towards her. She was probably feeling just as bad as I did, if not worse. If it were War yelling at Shy, I probably would've told him to relax. But it's not War. It's me who hates Fluttershy. It's Fluttershy who hates Fluttershy. We were both totally justified in our hatred. But just because you can justify your doing of something doesn't mean you should do it. At that point, it wasn't a question of "Should I forgive her?". It's more of a question of "_Can_ I forgive her?". Short answer: no. Long answer: Hell no.

"Get to work, Commandoshy." I said, turning to the stairs. "I've detected a pattern, and normally the person to leave the house for a stupid job like this is the next one to die. For once in your life, try not to be a disappointment."


	20. Conjure's Diary: Entry 2

NAME: Isaiah Simmons

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Conjure, Seiko Akira

AGE: 20 years

DIARY ENTRY: #20

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Pathological Perfectionism, Dysthymia,

STATUS: Healthy, Depressed

* * *

I sat in the middle of the training room, which I had transformed into a sort of smithy, with a big pit of fire in front of me, a cast-iron cauldron hovering over the flame. To my right were two straight, ninjaken casts, the hilts already in place. Both casts were closed and standing upright, waiting for me to pour the molten metal. My blacksmithing session was nearly done, only three steps missing. I summoned a huge trough of water, an anvil and hammer, and a huge chunk of oxidized manganese, a purple mineral that I would be using along with steel and silver. I threw my hunk of manganese into the cauldron, then used my magic to stoke the fire. When the metal was all melted, I tipped the cauldron into the casts, dividing the metal evenly between the two. After I was sure my alloy was solidified, I opened the casts with magic, and levitated the white-hot swords onto the anvil.

I took the hammer down on the still-hot blade again and again, sweat trickling down my face. The four-foot long, straight-edged blades had to be perfect. It took me about an hour, but I eventually got the blades as straight as I wanted. I threw them into my trough, leaning back to avoid the steam. I gave it twenty minutes to cool, and removed them, revelling in my new weapons. They were just as sharp and straight as Kate and Anna, but these new swords had a bright lavender color, like Twilight's coat, along with sparkling dust, stars peppering the blade. I pressed my finger against the blade of the first sword, urging my horn to glow. My finger traced out her first name, while my magic etched them into the blade itself. I repeated the process on the second blade, using the other half of her name for this one.

"Twilight and Sparkle." I said, proud of my handiwork. The plan was for me to make these for her when we got to Equestria, so we could both have ninjaken. But that plan is ruined now. She'll never get to see these swords, never get to shine with pride in my blacksmithing. I'd never be able to see her small, nervous smirk ever again. The gleam in her eyes when she cracks a problem. Her serious, yet caring demeanor. Her death cut me much deeper than a blade ever could. I was seriously considering leaving to Equestria, but she would be so disappointed in me. I had to do right by Twilight, I had to make sure she didn't die in vain. In order to do that, I'd have to succeed with this black hole. And in order to do _that_, I'd have to push Twilight out of my head and focus.

I cleaned up the training room, clearing out all the equipment I used to make Twilight and Sparkle, along with Twilight and Sparkle themselves. My magic helped clear out some of the heat in the room, and I conjured a yoga mat while I was at it. I dropped to my butt, and summoned some burning incense in front of me. My eyes fluttered closed, and I slowly began to clear my head. When I was still in school, I won a summer trip to Japan, and I met a guy who taught me some pretty cool things. His name was Shigeru Sasaki, and he taught me how to use my ninjaken, as well as some meditation techniques, such as this. Shigeru-sensei was a wise, peaceful man, and I wish I could meet with him again.

I sat in perfect silence for hours, becoming more aware of my other senses. This was one of Shigeru-sensei's favorite techniques. By closing your eyes, you remove the distraction of sight, forcing you to depend on your other senses for information. The burning incense is meant to eliminate use of the nose, and there's nothing to touch or taste, so my only useable sense is that of hearing. After an hour or so of that, I cycle to a different sense. I decided to keep training my hearing into the third hour, because I was already comfortable doing it. I heard little sounds that I wouldn't have noticed before, which is the other part of this technique: focus. I could hear flies buzzing through the air, a stray roach scuttling through the house. Then, there were the sounds of bustling, stumbling, something soft cutting through the air, and a soft settling in front of me.

"Hey." said Commandoshy. "You okay there?"

"I'm fine. Did Nova-6 work?" I asked.

"That's it? No 'Oh my gosh, Fluttershy, where have you been?'. I've been gone for like three hours, and you aren't even curious about my whereabouts? What if Fluttershy got captured, and I'm really a changeling in disguise who came to kill you?"

"If you were a changeling, you'd have tried to kill me already." I said, eyes still closed. "I didn't think about it, but I guess I am curious. What took you so long?"

"I ran into Queen Chrysalis." she said. "And I kicked her crippled ass!"

"Crippled?"

"Most of the changelings died outright. A handful, Chrysalis included, had that muscular dystrophy thing that Twilight was talking about. Chrysalis was in crutches, honest to Celestia crutches, and it was fantastic! I tripped her and beat her with her own walking sticks!"

"Did you kill her?" I asked.

"Well, I was going to, but then…" she said.

"What?"

"Take a look for yourself." said Fluttershy uneasily.

I opened my eyes and jumped backwards in shock. Fluttershy's normally bright, cyan eyes, were now all-white, like someone replaced her eyes with cue balls. The fur around her eyes was completely burned off, the pink skin beneath scarred and scorched. I waved my hand in front of her non-seeing, unblinking eyes. She just kept staring forward at nothing.

"What the hell happened to you?" I asked.

"I beat her with her crutches, right?" said Fluttershy, picking up in her story. "I got pretty tired, and decided to end it. As I go to draw Celestial, Chrysalis shoots a blast of magic right at my eyes. She teleported away and I started running through the streets. I was just a little blurry at the time, but I wanted to find her. My sight started getting worse, and I decided to start working my way home. I get about 5 blocks from here when someone steals Celestial off of my hip. At this point, I can't see shit, so I just left it and ran in here."

"Jesus, Shy, this is going to take some work to fix." I said, casting multiple correctional spells on her eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Do you care?"

"Just because I said I wanted you to die doesn't mean I wanted you to die _today_. For the love of God, were you trying to get yourself killed?"

"I wasn't trying not to." said Fluttershy, blinking hard. "Son of a bitch! Is it supposed to burn?"  
"Yeah. Sorry, but I'm recreating your lens and un-burning your retina." I said. "It's going to feel like that for a while."

"It feels like there's bleach in my eyes."

"It'll only get worse. I'm bringing you to your room, and you're going to rest until your eyes come back."

"Um… Can you put me somewhere else?" she asked. "I really don't want you in my room."

"Why?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"There's some stuff in there that I'd rather you didn't see."

"Like what? Dirty magazines? I don't know if you knew this, but I've been living with Rainbow Dash for the past three years. No way can you top her perviness."

"It's not that. It's just sort of embarrassing." she said. I took a moment to ponder what could be so bad. I had to find out, no matter what.

"Fine." I lied. "I'll levitate you in there, but I won't go in myself."

She nodded and rose to her hooves. My magic gripped at her body, raising her into the air. I dragged her through the air, up two flights of stair and to the topmost floor. Well, nearly topmost. There was still my secret attic, but there was nothing up there anymore. I brought Fluttershy to her room, the one farthest in the corner. I pushed open her door and gawked at the mess. There were clothes and knives, trash and tissues, bullets and casings. That wasn't even the worst of it. Across the wall was hastily scrawled graffiti, disturbing messages from Fluttershy. I cleared off the trash from her bed and dropped her down gently, backing up to get a better look.

"'Why her?'" I read under my breath. "'Take me instead'. 'God end this pain'. 'Life is a tale, told by an idiot. Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing'. 'Why worry about tomorrow? It probably won't arrive'."

I could've kept going. Nearly every inch of the wall was covered with grim, hopeless black notes. I saw lines from the darkest of Edgar Allen Poe's poems, and quotes of complete hopelessness and despair. I backed out of the room slowly and quietly, closing the door behind me.

"Hey, Commandoshy!" I called, knocking on the door. My horn began to glow, and there was a loud _POP!_ sound from inside her room. On the nightstand to her left was a bigger-on-the-inside water bottle and a bottle of Tylenol.

"What was that?" asked Fluttershy.

"Some vicodin. It'll help with your eyes." I lied. "Don't over do it, okay? I don't want to come home and find you dead. I'd much rather be there when you kick the bucket."

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"I've got to go test something. I'll be back in a couple of hours."

* * *

I made my way through the streets, my eyes peeled for a changeling. Or rather, eyes peeled for a _breathing _changeling. It was no surprise to me, but Twilight is a genius. Was a genius. Her Nova-6 virus worked in spades, littering the streets with changelings, purplish-black goo oozing from every feasible pore. I laughed, amazed at how smart and talented she was. She literally melted the muscles. It was fascinating, honestly. Just imagine if Twilight was around during World War II. There would be a mad grab for her, every country, ally or enemy, fighting for this super-weapon. If Hitler would've gotten her, I'd probably be speaking German. It's scary to think about how much impact a single person can have.

"Where are you, assholes?" I muttered to nobody. I puffed out a breath of air and remembered what my sensei taught me. I closed my eyes and listened to my surroundings, feeling around with my ears. I heard a rustling to my left, across the street, right in a pile of corpses.

"Using your brothers as camouflage?" I asked, opening my eyes. "I thought you things had pride, and a sense of kinship."

A large gathering of fallen changelings shook, a single survivor rising to it's hooves. This changeling was odd. It didn't threaten me, it didn't berate me for disrespecting him, and he didn't shout about Fluttershy's attack on Chrysalis. Then, the reason for it's silence became apparent. It's mouth was nowhere to be found, his bright blue eyes being the only visible feature on his hard, black face. His chin just rose to a featureless plateau, igniting a spiteful smile out of me.

"You clever son of a bitch." I said. "You used your shape changing powers to remove your mouth and nose. No mouth, no way to become infected via the air. Chrysalis likely cleans your water herself, so that's out. There's no fluid exchange your kind, is there? So you think you're safe?"

The changeling nodded, using his magic to morph his arm in a sharp bladed weapon.

"You realize that by using your magic that you expose yourself, right? We created that virus to be transmitted air-to-horn. You charging your body with magic just guaranteed your infection."

"No!" it shouted, giving itself back it's mouth. "You sneaky Equestrians truly thought of everything!"

"Not really." I said. "I was lying about the air-to-horn thing. I cannot believe you actually took the bait."

I've never seen a bug look embarrassed, but the changeling seemed pretty flustered. It hung it's head in defeat, about as shocked at his own stupidity as I was.

"You're crafty Equestrian." it muttered. "You truly are a worthy opponent to the changelings."

"I'm not an Equestrian." I said. "What's your name?"

"I am Contra."

"Contra? You killed Rarity and Aj, right? Guess it's about time that you get your comeuppance."

My horn began to glow, and a sword fell into each hand. I jumped towards the changeling and slashed through it's legs with the sharp, purple blades of my Twilight and Sparkle. Green blood splashed onto my swords and the ground, the screams of the changeling slicing through the quiet of the air. With his back pressed against the ground, I stepped on his neck, pinning him there while my magic explored the air, searching for a single point with a slightly stronger gravitational pull. When the point was apparent, I cast a containment field around it, stopping even a single atom from entering or exiting. Slowly, I trotted backwards, my magnification spell in the works. A single orb of light grew above the changeling, growing to the size of a basketball. Slowly, it shrunk and compacted on itself, fading from white to grey and darkening quickly. I got back as far as possible, revelling at my psuedo-blackhole. The orb shrunk to the size of a golf ball, and it's effects were about to be obvious. I removed the containment field, replacing it with a stabilizer spell, a huge gust of wind blowing towards the orb. It pulled in everything, corpses, asphalt, parts from surrounding buildings, and the changeling itself. It was scientifically incorrect to call what I created a black hole, but it's the closest equivalent I could create. It works under a similar principle, but my creation and a true black hole have distinctly different outcomes. A true black hole consumes all that is less dense than it. As it consumes, it grows larger and can therefore consume larger items, until either it is consumed by a larger black hole or consumes all of the matter in the infinite universe. My creation, however, is meant to yank matter from the surrounding area and collapse onto itself, leaving whatever it consumed in a limbo-like vacuum. After a few moments, when my black hole had consumed Contra and several dead changelings, I cancelled the stabilizer spell. The orb shook and shimmered, dissipating completely after a while.

"Okay." I muttered to myself. Blood slowly began to trickle down my nose, and I could hardly take in a breath. "I can definitely do it. But can I do it again? Preferably without killing myself."

The question was unnecessary. Of course I could. I had no choice. Twilight would've pushed me as hard as possible. She'd have been disappointed if I got lazy, and she would've wanted me to reach my full potential. As a chronic procrastinator, I've heard the speech before, but never about my method of assassinating an immortal. No, I'm used to being yelled at for putting off my English homework. I never thought there'd be a time where I said "Hey, I wish I was back in high school", but I sure am thinking it now. High school, back when my friends were alive and my enemies were mortals whose idea of torture was shoving you into a locker. Funny how things change.

"No time for reminiscence." I said to myself. "I gotta check on Commandoshy. She better not be dead. I'll be pissed."

I teleported back home, popping outside of Fluttershy's bedroom. I knocked on her door, refilling her water and painkillers when she confirmed that she was okay. She said she was okay, but her eye pain would spike at random intervals, getting to nearly unbearable levels of agony.I slipped into the kitchen and explored the fridge, pulling out bread, Miracle Whip, and a tomato, then pulled salt and pepper from the cabinets. I took two slices of bread, slathered them with Miracle Whip, sliced a couple thick disks of tomato, adding salt and pepper, then sandwiched it all together. After I ate my quick lunch, I put on a kettle of hot water and tea leaves (bigger on the inside, of course), and descended to the training room with my handle-less Japanese teacup. I sat on my mat, lit a new stick of incense, and summoned my kettle.

"God!" screamed Fluttershy in agony. "Son of a bitch!"

"Ugh." I muttered, filling my teacup. I took a sip of the scalding, yet calming, tea, and closed my eyes. If pushing Twilight out of my head was hard, it'd be impossible separate my mind from Fluttershy's screaming.

"Conjure!" she cried. "I can't take it anymore! I need something stronger."

"Sorry!" I shouted back, my horn glowing green. I heard the pop faintly from upstairs, a bottle of Advil falling into her hands. "Take more than three in an hour, and that eye pain will be the last thing you ever feel, if you catch my drift."

I can only assume that she took the pills, because I was able to relax and meditate for the next five hours uninterrupted. You gotta love the Placebo Effect.


	21. Conjure's Diary: Entry 3

NAME: Isaiah Simmons

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Conjure, Seiko Akira

AGE: 20 years

DIARY ENTRY: #21

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Pathological Perfectionism, Dysthymia

STATUS: Healthy, Depressed

* * *

I stood up all night, sipping my tea and numbing various senses to heighten others. After a few hours of burning incense, I sat myself in a magical ice-bath. I could sit in there naked for hours with the only side effect being numbness, which is what I did. After I was done with my ice, I warmed up and got dressed. I surrounded my head with a bubble of magic, preventing air from vibrating and completely stopping any noise from taking place. I rotated my meditations four times over, before slipping into the final phase, which is simple concentration. It was 3 A.M when I started, and I lost track of time. I sat there in utter silence, completely serene and zen. It was the first sense of order and control I've felt in a while.

"Still doing your Japanese thing?" said Fluttershy. I opened my eyes, mainly to check on hers. They were mostly back to normal, their cyan a little duller than usual. She sat down in front of me, her own mug in hand, and poured herself a cup of my tea.

"What do you want?" I asked, watching her take a sip. Her face wrinkled in disgust, and she turned to spit it out.

"Sweet Celestia, what is this sewage?"

"Genmaicha. Green tea leaves and roasted brown rice. If you don't like Japanese tea, maybe you should wait for me to offer you a cup next time. I might actually find something you like.

"I like sweeter teas." she complained. I enjoyed tea of almost all kinds, but my favorite were the roasty, almost earthy varieties, such as my genmaicha. I sighed and summoned another kettle, this one filled with boiling water that has been steeped in roasted green tea leaves. I summoned another two cups, filled them, and passed one to Fluttershy.

"There." I said, sipping and draining my cup. "Hojicha. This one tastes a little like caramel, and I can get a sugar dish, if you want." She took a sip and sighed wistfully, the warmth of the tea obviously filling her chest.

"I like this one." said Fluttershy, smiling. "It's calming."

"Wait. You have to try this one."

I summoned another kettle, two cups, and a large dish of tea biscuits. This kettle was filled with milk that had steeped in black tea leaves and a myriad of Indian spices. I filled the new cups with the beige liquid and pushed it towards Commandoshy. I grabbed a biscuit, dunked it in my tea, and took a bite. I chewed the sweet, spicy cookie, staring at Fluttershy's eyes.

"How are your eyes?" I asked.

"Mostly back to normal. A little fuzzy." she answered, sipping her newest cup of tea. "Ooh! I _really_ like this one! It's smooth and spicy. What is it?"

"Masala chai, and Indian tea. It translates to 'Mixed-Spice Tea' and it was War's favorite."

"So, you were just sitting here all night, sipping tea and meditating?" asked Fluttershy.

"More or less." I said. "I need my wits to be sharp as razors if I plan on getting in and out alive."

"Speaking of which, how _do_ you plan on getting in and out in one piece?"

"Most of the changelings are dead, so it's just Chrysalis and Discord who I have to worry about."

"We haven't seen Discord in ages." said Fluttershy. "Do you think he's still working with Sombra?"

"I see no evidence to support that he's not, so I have to assume that he's still a threat." I said. "It'll be easy. I just have to snipe out any guards, sneak in to the Impaler, open my black hole, and leave."

"Snipe? With what?"

"My L96a1 sniper rifle that fires .338 caliber rounds." I said. "Don't tell me you don't remember me having one."

"You've never used it." she pointed out.

"Sure I have."

"Really? When?"

"I used it… Oh, I remember! I sniped three guards the day you killed Sunset Shimmer." I said. "I helped clear the way to your first kill."

"Don't say it like it's something to be proud of." grumbled Fluttershy.

"Isn't it? That was our first, not to mention only, victory. You were the one who took our first step towards saving Earth and Equestria."

"But at what cost?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You know damn well what I mean. You know who I used to be." she said angrily. "I still can't believe I killed her."

"For Christ's sake, Fluttershy. You've killed tons of changelings over the years, but the thing that hurts you most is the only kill of any relevance?"

"You never went inside the building, did you? You just stood on your building, pulling triggers and taking lives. I walked in there, I took out her bodyguards, and I fought her. She gave up, did you know that? She didn't want to work with Sombra anymore, and she begged me to help her get out. She'd be my prisoner, obviously, but anything was better than working with Sombra. And you know what I did? I crushed her skull under my hoof."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because nopony offered Silver a second chance." grumbled Fluttershy. "She got to live, but he had to die? Bullshit. That's just not fair."

"If everyone acted under that thought process, the world would descend into chaos."

"You're right. The thing about anarchy, though, is that it's fair." she stated. "We could be walking down the street at the same speed at the same time, and we could both be killed in the same way. It's fair. No friends, no foes, no ulterior motives, no personal agendas. Just… chaos. I can see what Discord loved about it. It's certainly more simple than order, way easier than trying to keep things sane."

"Nothing worth doing is ever easy." I quoted. "Snap out of it, Shy. You're not Discord."

"I'm not Fluttershy, either."

"Then what are you?" I asked.

"What you've been calling me all this time." she said with a grim smile. "I'm the Commandoshy. I answer to nopony, and I don't stop until I get the job done. Or die, whichever comes first."

Silence fell over the two of us, neither of us having much to say. We just sat there, sipping our tea. I wondered what Twilight would've said. Probably nothing. Twilight wasn't much better at talking to others than I was.

"Listen, Conjure." said Fluttershy. "Out of all of the group, I never thought it'd end up falling all on us."

"Gee, thanks." I said sarcastically. "I'm glad you just assumed I'd be the first to bite the dust."

"What I mean is that we've been through a lot. Ever since Silver died, I was afraid that you'd react like War. But, no. You stood with us. You had faith. And just you being there gave us a little bit of hope, and a little bit was enough to get us through the day."

"Fat lot of good I did." I sighed. "All I've ever done was kill Twilight. What use am I?"

"Everypony has a purpose. That's what the Cutie Mark represents."

"I know that, Shy, it's just a matter of applying it to everyday use. Just because you can do something amazing doesn't mean that amazing thing is actually worth doing. My magic is great and all, but I haven't been able to do anything worth doing with it. I couldn't save Silver, I couldn't save Twilight… I'm just a guy, at the end of the day. I'm just a man walking the Earth, trying to get by, trying to survive. I'm blinder than you were last night, and I don't seem to be regaining any sight. I need… guidance."

"Only sheep need a shepherd, and only children need their hands held." said Fluttershy. "You aren't a sheep or a child, are you? No? Then grow the hell up. Get over it."

"Coming from the woman who has apocalypse graffiti on her walls." I shot back.

"I was going to forgive you for giving me the wrong pills, but I explicitly told you to stay out of my room."

"And I explicitly told you to be the next to die. Looks like we're both disappointments."

"You're much better at this jaw-jacking thing than War was." she stated.

"Yeah, well, I have a much better understanding of the English language than War." I said. I could almost feel War's fist collide with my shoulder. Hey, if anyone could hit me from a non-existing afterlife, it's War.

"So, Russian was his first language?"

"No. He was just dumb. Listen, I'm going to go get ready to bring the fight to Sombra. Don't wait up."

"What, you mean you're not taking me?" asked Fluttershy.

"Not like it makes a difference. If I can't get out without you, I won't be able to get out with you. Then, Sombra will just kill you then." I pointed out. "If you're going to get yourself killed, at least make the asshole get out of bed."

"You think he's going to kill you while he's in bed?"

"Look, I don't know what he does in his off time. Maybe he sits in bed with fuzzy slippers, sipping a cup of hot cocoa and watching Saturday morning cartoons. Wouldn't it be ironic if he was a brony? But, no, that's not possible. Sombra can't enjoy anything that makes people happy."

"Well, if you don't want me to go, then you should start heading out." said Fluttershy. I nodded and got to my hooves, stretching out my arms and legs. Sitting down without moving for hours did eventually take a toll on the body. My horn began to glow green, Twilight and Sparkle falling into my hands, sheaths and all. I tied them to my hips, and summoned my favorite weapon. It was my favorite because I almost never got to use it. My heavy, L96a1 sniper rifle fell into my right hand, almost as tall as I was. I put it on my back, the magical leather straps tying the rifle to me so that I didn't have to. I was going to put that spell on War's hammer, but I never got the chance. Finally, I summoned a backpack filled with magazines for my rifle and flung it over my shoulder.

"I'm ready to go." I said.

"Good luck, Conjure." said Fluttershy quietly.

"Shy? I love you."

"Um… Moving on from Twilight pretty quickly, aren't we?"

"Not like that, stupid." I said, rolling my eyes. "What I mean is that… Well, I don't know what else to say but that. I care about you. I've started to regard you as family, and I thought you should know that."

"Why?" she asked.

"I think we both know why."

"Fine, then. I guess I love you, too. God, that's awkward to say." complained Fluttershy. "If you die out there, I'm going to kill you."

"I can't be killed twice in one day. How are you going to explain that at my funeral?" I joked.

I left the training room with my gear and strolled upstairs to the kitchen. I had one last tomato sandwich in the fridge from the night before, and I knew that it could be my last. I dug into the fridge and took a big bite, washing it down with a can of root beer. When I finished what would possibly be my Last Supper, I left out the back door. I took a second to look at the tombstones. We hadn't thought to make one for War, Dash, or Twilight. My horn began to glow, and three more headstones rose from the ground, a faint emerald sparkling emanating from them. My horn began to glow again, this time surrounding my entire body with light. Magic surged through my body, vibrating my very blood.

_POP!_

I reappeared on top of a skyscraper, three buildings between me and the half-repaired Heaven's Impaler. There was scaffolding going about halfway up the building, the other half being unfinished, I-beams and steel girders reaching into the sky. If you were above it, you'd probably be able to look right at Sombra through the hole in the ceiling. I removed my sniper from my back, dropped down to my belly, and flicked out the bipod. I pushed the rifle down to the ground, stabilizing my aim as I peered through the scope, adjusting the zoom until it suited my purposes best. I left it alone at around 17 times magnification and began my search for enemies. At the front door were two heavy machine gun-turrets, a changeling at each one, sweeping the area and waiting for me to come to them.

"Not today, my friend." I said, summoning a suppressor and screwing it to the end of my barrel. Just as I was about to take the shot, it occurred to me how foolish it would be to have just these two faceless grunts manning turrets. If I were him, I'd have more than that. I teleported to a building to the right of the Impaler, spying two more changeling-manned turrets. I teleported to each of the four sides of the beast of a building, two changelings on machine guns on each side. Which meant I had to be quick. When I was in my original position, I positioned my scope just above the left changeling's head. Allowing for drag and wind resistance, my bullet should hit him right between the eyes, at which point I'd have to fire into his buddy.

"Relax, Conjure." I said to myself. I loaded my rifle with a mag and inhaled deeply. I pulled the trigger, whipped my sniper to the right, and fired again. Two pulls of the trigger, two perfect, silent headshots. I teleported to the left of the building, bringing my gun with me this time. These two shots went off just as flawlessly as the first two, the two proceeding it also being perfect. I nearly missed the last two, but was able to salvage the shot and killed them before they could shout for help. 9 shots, 8 headshots… Meaning I had a percent accuracy of 88.888, repeating. Not my best, but by no means the worst.

"And now, I move in." I said, not sure who I was commentating for. Emerald green light began to surround my horn, and I teleported again, appearing on the Heaven Impaler's scaffolding, but on the inside of the building. The floor below me was completely empty, but also a long drop. If I jumped, I'd probably break my legs. If I teleported, I'd almost definitely attract unwanted attention. Just as I was working out how I would get down there, I felt the hard barrel of a gun press against the back of my head.

"Keep quiet or I'll blow your brains out." whispered an echoing, insectoid voice. "Turn around, slowly."

I did as I was told, and was hit with a mixed feeling of humor and terror. Queen Chrysalis seemed to have fallen on hard times. She was leaning forward precariously on forearm crutches, her gun floating and surrounded by an emerald green light, not unlike my own. Twilight's virus worked even on the changeling queen herself.

"Why didn't you shoot me?" I asked.

"I need a favor from you." said Chrysalis, looking over her shoulder.

"What could you possibly want from me? What do you think I would possibly do for you?"

"I need you to kill Sombra."

"I beg your pardon?" I said, not daring to believe my own ears. It sounded like she was proposing an alliance.

"You heard me, boy. I need you to kill Sombra for me." said Chrysalis, her paranoia becoming more apparent the more she spoke. "As soon as he gets bored with you and your leader, he's going to kill me. I need, say, an unfortunate accident to happen before that."

"Why can't you do it?" I asked out of pure curiosity.

"Did you miss the crutches? And that Brittle Horn ruined my magic. I can barely muster a levitation spell."

"So, you're of no help to me?"

"Help? What made you think I was helping. If you beat Sombra, I'll kill you myself." said Chrysalis, nudging my head with her pistol.

"Then why even come to me?" I asked, trying my hardest to find a way out of this situation.

"I still have a job to do. Just because I want him dead doesn't mean I can break our deal. He writes the checks, so to speak. Never argue with the boss."

She hobbled over to me, gun trained on me as she worked her way around my back. As I tried to turn, she pressed her gun against my head, implying that it would be unwise to do such a thing.

"What now?" I asked, Chrysalis completely out of my sight.

"Good luck." she said. Her crutches pushed into my back, throwing me forward. I stumbled and fell off of the scaffolding, plummeting through the air, face-first. I closed my eyes and braced for an impact that never came. I cracked one eye open and gawked at the red energy surrounding me, holding me in the sky a few inches off of the ground.

"Come now, boy." growled Sombra, stepping out from behind me. "You'll have to do better than that if you want to get the drop on me."

"Haha, oh, haha, hehe, haha, ha." I laughed forcefully. "And I thought my jokes were bad."

"I wasn't aware I was being funny." said Sombra, lowering me to the ground upright. "So, what brings you here, boy."

"Oh, I'm going around town taking a survey. Would you describe our rebellion as satisfactory, very satisfactory, or not satisfactory at all?" I said sarcastically. "Why do you think I'm here? I'm going to kill you."

"Oh, come now! You lot have grown so boring! It's always one of you thinking you can assassinate me, you coming to me, me running my sword through your chest… It's becoming all too predictable. Let's try something new. How about we have a little business discussion first?"

"What business could we possibly discuss?" I asked.

"You are strong. You've lasted this long, which is admirable." growled Sombra. "You have so much power that even my subordinates believe you can defeat me. Which reminds me, there's no need for unrest, Chrysalis. If I wanted to kill you, I would've done it by now. Even if you're mostly powerless, it'd be short sighted to kill you now. You can lay more eggs, and I can get more soldiers through you."

"So, I'm strong. So what?"

"You have power unlike that which I've seen since Luna and Celestia. You'd make an excellent student."

"Does that ever actually work?" I asked. "Oh, no, that's original. It's not like that's in every sci-fi and fantasy movie ever. Here's a good line, completely original too, have you ever tried 'Join the dark side'? 'Let the hate flow through you'? You can keep those, use them any time."

"I admit it does seem a bit cliche, but do you realize what we could accomplish together?" asked Sombra. "I could teach you magic unknown to all! We could traverse time, maybe even reanimate the dead! If you join me, I promise you that you can have your friends again."

"My friends?" I said.

"Yes, all of them. Silver, War, everypony."

"Even Twilight?"

"If you join me you can have any mare you want." said Sombra. "You won't have to settle for that hussy bint. Come, boy, I think it's more than fair to say that you're on the losing side. If you join me, you will not only survive, but you can have anything you wish."

"I suppose you're right." I said. "I am on the losing side."

"That you are, boy."

"Anything I want? My friends again?"

"Not to mention money, and, my personal favorite, power." said Sombra.

"I suppose it would be easier to give up now, before I'm in too deep." I said thoughtfully.

"Yes, far easier."

"Well, then. I guess my choice is obvious."

"Very good!" said Sombra with glee. "If you come this way, I'll introduce you to my allies, then we can start our les-"

"You shouldn't have said that about Twilight." I said. My horn began to glow green, and the smile that adorned Sombra's face shattered into a grimace. I snapped my fingers, and a black orb popped in front of him. I felt the wind pull me more than I heard it, and I dug my hooves into the ground, anchoring me down. Sombra's grimace rose back into a smile, a more humored one, near laughing.

"You truly are impressive!" he praised, his horn glowing red. "I've been alive for 16,000 years, the target of many assassination attempts. I've been shot at, poisoned, impaled, exploded, but never has somepony tried to kill me with a black hole!"

"Then let the most creative attempt also be the most successful!" I shouted, fighting against the pull of my own black hole. My horn began to glow again, the hole growing larger and stronger. Sombra never even flinched, just watching me struggle to escape the gravitational pull.

"That'll never work, boy. As soon as I realised what you were doing, I increased my own gravitational pull to be equal to your black hole." he said.

"Then why aren't you collapsing on yourself?" I asked. stabbing Twilight and Sparkle into the ground and using them to anchor me down to the ground.

"I have another spell, going the opposite way, to cancel this one out. You were foolish to try this. It would've been much easier if you just gave up, instead of trying to fight me."

"Nothing worth doing is ever easy." I replied, my horn glowing green. I felt a simultaneous push and pull at my chest, and I was able to stand straight, without the aid of my anchors. I pulled them out of the ground and increased the strength of my black hole. The containment field was holding, as nothing else was being affected.

"This is the promise I saw in you, child." said Sombra in frustration. "You mimicked my spell after hearing the method once! That is amazing, honestly! You know I don't throw praise around blindly, so a pat on the back from me should mean more than the world. You truly are a fool to waste such talent. The only thing you've accomplished by coming here is that you got yourself killed."

His lower half burst into smoke, flying beneath the black hole and binding my legs. It yanked up, throwing me onto my back and breaking my concentration. By the time I re-applied the spells, it was too late. My legs were being yanked at, pain flaring at my thighs. I stabbed my ninjaken into the ground again, but was still dragged closer and closer to my black hole. Pain grew in my thighs, and exploded in my shoulders. I could feel the skin and muscle tearing and stretching. I screamed loudly in agony, and there was a gross ripping and snapping, pain bursting in my left thigh. I watched in horror as my leg stretched from my body, ripping off and flying into the dark abyss. I nearly vomited at the sight of my own broken femur poking out from my jaggedly shredded stump of a leg. The ripping began in my right shoulder, and my arm snapped right out of the socket, the rest of me falling past my formerly anchored arm and a little closer to the hole that had just swallowed two of my limbs. The pain was shockingly sharp and without end, spreading to all of my body. Sombra snapped his fingers, causing the black hole to fade from view and disappear, the intense force sucking me in subsiding. Blood poured from my left leg stump and right arm stump, pooling around me.

"What a shame." said Sombra, stepping over to my fallen body. He stepped right into my blood pool and crouched to my left.

"Just… finish me." I grunted, the pain shocking my brain and slurring my words. For the love of God! The pain!

"Why should I? Did you bow to my request? I gave you all an opportunity to surrender, and you ignored me. Did you think me a joke? And now, when I have you at my complete and total mercy, you have the audacity to make requests of me? No! You will sit there and bleed and suffer and scream! And then, with my playthings exhausted and crippled, I'm going to slowly eradicate your kind. You are not the first, nor will you be the last, human I slaughter, all because of stubborn ignorance! I am the King of Shadows, and you will either bow before me or pay the price!"

"At least hear my last words." I coughed. My time was running out, and even Sombra could tell.

"Very well. You were fun while you lasted." growled Sombra. He leaned forward to listen to what I had to say, not expecting the jet of saliva that I launched onto his cheek. He stood up and wiped his face with a sort of frowning smirk.

"Was that supposed to be charming?" he asked. He raised his hoof and brought it down onto my face hard with all the force he had, shattering my nose. I constantly fluctuated between awareness of pain in my leg, pain in my arm, and pain in my head. He stomped on my head again, chipping my skull and knocking my brain around. He brought his hoof down one final time, launching a piece of bone into my brain. My body fell limp, and the pain that I was feeling was no more. As time went on, it got harder to form thoughts, memories fading and knowledge dying. All I knew is that this was it. This would be the only chance of me seeing Twilight again, however unlikely. I practically jumped into the shadows, praying that I was wrong and that my love would be on the other side, waiting for me.

* * *

NAME: Isaiah Simmons

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Conjure, Seiko Akira

AGE: 20 years

DIARY ENTRY: #21

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Pathological Perfectionism, Dysthymia

STATUS: Deceased


	22. Fluttershy's Diary: Entry 1

NAME: Fluttershy

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Commandoshy, The Yellow Plague, Shy, Fleur Isabelle Victoire

AGE: 20 years

DIARY ENTRY: #22

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Dysthymia, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Survivor's Guilt, Paranoid Schizophrenia

STATUS: Healthy, Depressed

* * *

I looked up at the Heaven's Impaler, the hundred-plus foot building completely rebuilt. As I expected, there were no guards anywhere around it. Sombra knew that it was unnecessary. I sighed audibly and began my slow trudge into the building. Just like the outside, the lobby was completely deserted. Fine by me. I entered the elevator and carelessly threw my hand against one of the buttons. It didn't matter which floor I went to. All roads lead to home, after all, and home is where the heart is. My heart was with my friends, and my friends were… Waiting for me, at least.

The doors opened and I felt myself walk out of the elevator. I don't remember moving, but I ended up in the middle of the room after a second. I pulled a small hand mirror from my otherwise empty backpack and peered into it. My mane was a mess, despite my attempts to tame it. It was better than normal, though, and that's what mattered. I twirled with the end of my short yellow dress dreamily, wondering what it'd be like. From what I've read, it starts quickly and ends even faster. I guess that was supposed to comfort me, but it didn't.

"Don't be scared, Fluttershy!" laughed Pinkie's voice. "It won't last too long! I'll see you soon."

"You're not real." I muttered. "I'm going crazy."

"We may not be real yet, but we will be soon, darling." said Rarity.

"We've been waitin fer ya." chimed Applejack. "It'll be alright. Just be brave, sugarcube, and you'll get through it."

"I'm sort of scared." I whispered.

"Fluttershy, you are the biggest scaredy-pony I've ever met." came Rainbow Dash's impatient voice. "You're afraid of being brave? Hurry up!"

"We got some shit to settle." growled War.

"And I would love to settle it, War, but I'm not sure I have it in me." I whispered, even quieter than before.

"Fluttershy, you're over-reacting." said Twilight knowingly. "Science proved that death is only as painful as you make it. If you disregard the pain, you'll be fine."

"It's not like you don't want to." said Conjure. "We've talked about you dying before, and it sounded to me like you were looking forward to it."

"But that was three days ago." I said, barely audible. The next voice I heard sent a chill down my spine, and a razor through my heart. I hadn't heard his voice in years, and it wasn't something I heard a lot of.

"It's time, Flutters." said Silver Rift. The reason for all of this. "You already got all dolled up, in your Sunday's Best no less, so why waste time?"

"I guess you're right." I said. "Okay. I think I'm ready."

"It is about time." growled Sombra, knocking the voices out of my head with his own. He seemed to appear from nowhere, but I might have been dazing out. He smiled at me and drew his black bladed knife.

"Hello, Sombra." I said quietly, looking away from him.

"Why are you here?"

"I'm done. I had a job, and I failed. What's the point in delaying?"

"Are you surrendering?" asked Sombra. I nodded my head, and he laughed deeply. "Don't you remember what I said to you a few weeks ago? You don't have that option anymore. You will not be spared."

"That's fine. I don't want to argue about it. If you want, you can kill me."

"Are you serious? That's it? You truly don't care? You're not going to fight back?"

"Do you want me to?" I asked.

"Bow before me, mare." growled Sombra. I shrugged my shoulders and dropped to my knees, lowering my head into a bow. Sombra moved to my right side and kicked me hard in the stomach, followed by another and another and another. I fell to the ground completely and the air was knocked out of me, with each sharp breath being interrupted by another hoof to the stomach. I gritted my teeth and took the beating, because I knew it would be over soon.

"Scream, mare. You know it hurts, and you have a good one in you. Give me one nice, earsplitting scream, and it'll be over soon."

I nodded and let out the high-pitched scream I'd been holding in. About halfway through, Sombra swung his hoof into my throat, interrupting my scream of pain with a sharp yelp.

"Yes! Now do you understand? None of your friends seem to have got it, but do you?" asked Sombra, stomping on my back and my head, kicking my stomach and face over and over again.

"Get… what?" I panted, trying not to pass out from the pain and repeated blows to the head.

"You've lost! I have won! King Sombra has defeated the Defenders of Harmony, and there's no changing it! I want you to say it. Say it, mare. Say that you've been bested by me!"

"You've defeated us." I grunted.

"Say it again!" he growled. "Say my name! Who has defeated you?"  
"Sombra."

"What?" he asked, stabbing his knife into my shoulder. Pain burst upwards, as did blood from my shoulder. He brought his hoof up and dropped it on the handle of the knife, piledriving the blade into my arm.

"King Sombra!" I gasped. "King Sombra defeated us!"

"King Sombra has won!" he growled. "King Sombra, the immortal god of Shadows, has finally defeated the pest of the rebellion! Finally, I have removed the persistence thorn from my side! Where's your friendship now? Isn't that what you said would be my downfall? The strength of your friendship would overcome all, right? But I picked off each of your friends, one by one. You never even stood a chance! You've done a lot of barking for such underdogs, you've shouted and yelled for ages! And now, my only opposition is silenced! This is the way you will meet your end! Not with a bang, but with a whimper!"

His large, clawed hand grabbed my mane and yanked me up, lifting my face from the ground. He kicked me back to my knees and held my face with one hand, almost caressing me. He pressed the cold, wicked sharp steel of his blade against my neck, and slashed once. I barely even felt it. My body fell to the ground as blood poured from my neck, a gurgling noise escaping me. I couldn't breathe, I felt as if I was drowning, and then… Nothing. I felt nothing but dark.

* * *

NAME: Fluttershy

ALIASES/ALTERNATE NAMES: Commandoshy, The Yellow Plague, Shy, Fleur Isabelle Victoire

AGE: 20 years

DIARY ENTRY: #22

NOTEABLE CONDITIONS: Dysthymia, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Survivor's Guilt, Paranoid Schizophrenia

STATUS: Deceased


	23. Loose Ends

I kicked the mare's dead body once more, just for good measure. My hoof against her unbreathing, unmoving body was certainly satisfying. The only thing more satisfying was my victory. Or, rather, the first phase of my victory. There were still two more things I had to take care of. My horn was cloaked in crimson light, and I felt the typical floating in my chest as I shed my physical form and rose into smoke. My newly gaseous body floated upwards, melting through the ceiling and up to the next floor, where my two allies were waiting for me. My form become solid once more, Chrysalis and Discord waiting in anticipation. The changeling queen looked as if she was ready to drop her crutches in fear and excitement.

"Dead." I proclaimed. "All dead."

"Congratulations." said Chrysalis. "We've won. Sorry about the misunderstanding the other day, about me and the Conjure child. I was just a little uneasy. No hard feelings?"

"Of course not, my dear. I don't blame you for your unrest."

"Did you really have to kill them?" asked Discord.

"Of course. What would you have me do?" I asked.

"I don't know. Freeze them in stone, maybe? I never wanted to kill them."

"With them simply trapped, I have loose ends. I hate loose ends. But, it doesn't matter, does it? Our partnership is over in the traditional sense. I have my realms, Chrysalis has her love, and you have your chaos in Equestria."

"How?" asked Discord. "There's still the princesses to contest with."

"Not anymore." I said. "They have been killed. Celestia, Luna, all of her guard, the pegasus filly that Luna taught… She could've been a great asset. Her swordsmanship was the best I've seen in years. Too stubborn, unfortunately. I never even learned her name."

"I believe you are referring to Scootaloo." said Discord, bitterly. He turned away, almost as if to hide his face. "I… I didn't think you'd kill Celestia and Luna."

"Terribly sorry, Discord. It was unavoidable. Loose ends, and the like"

"I… Hm. What do we do now?"

"I'm going to tie loose ends." I said. I shoved my right hand into Discord's chest. He groaned in agony as I reached around his body and grasped his heart, coating my arm in pale gold blood. Slowly, I pulled his heart out of his body, severing the arteries with my blade. The King of Chaos dropped to the ground meekly. I gripped Discord's heart firmly, squeezing the gold from it as he coughed and sputtered on the ground.

"There was once a time when I envied your immortality." I said, summoning Chrysalis' green revolver. "I am, to a degree, immortal, but even I can be killed. I thought that you had found a way around this, but it seems not." I pressed the barrel of the queen's gun against Discord's head and pulled the trigger. More golden blood splattered onto the floor, and he moved no more.

"I don't feel too good about this." said Chrysalis. "Did we really have to kill him?"

"Don't you listen? I hate loose ends." I said. I aimed my new revolver at Chrysalis' head and fired, splattering green blood onto the floor and dropping the changeling queen to the ground, dead. Red light surrounded my horn, then the corpses of my former allies. I snapped my fingers and they disappeared from the room, falling onto Fluttershy's body beneath me. Soon enough, I'd have their corpses burned.

"Finally." I growled. "My unhindered, absolute rule. This is divine power, godlike control."

"Unhindered rule? Divine power?" said a deep voice from behind me. "Shoveling it on pretty heavy, are we?"

I turned slowly, preparing to shoot whoever dared interrupt me. As soon as the tall, black, Earth pony stallion was in view, my gun vanished from my hand. He tossed it from hand to hand over the top of his head, which was covered in a black and red mane. He looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place him.

"You seem to be having trouble remembering who I am." he said. "I sent you my severed hand in a box, middle finger up. Remember? I blew up your house a little while later."

"How did you survive?" I asked. "I was sure you perished."

"Oh, I did. Or, rather, he did."

"Who's he?"

"War." said the stallion simply.

"Then who are you?" I asked, patience running thin.

"War."

"You're not making sense."

"Oh, right. You don't know." said War. "Might as well explain. You've won, correct?"

"Yes." I said. "Nothing can defy me."

"Yes, but only in this version of reality. Look, it's a long, complicated story, so I'm just going to give you an abridged version. This is one version of reality, but there are an infinite alternate versions in which every other possible outcome is the end product. For example, I come from a version of reality in which you are killed by Silver Rift 18 years from now."

"Ludicrous. I killed Silver Rift years ago." I said. This stallion was wasting my time and it was starting to anger me.

"Only in this version of reality." said War. "In fact, this reality is unique in a few ways. It's the only version of reality where Discord dies, it's the only version of reality where the changelings die, and this is the only version of reality where you win. So, out of the infinite possibilities, there is only one victory for Sombra. But, hey, that one win is something to be proud of. It's infinity us, 1 you, but you worked hard for that 1. So, congrats."

"Even if I choose to believe this malarkey, why should I care? I've already won, and these charlatan copies are of no concern to me."

"Let me finish. The reality I come from is unique as well. In my reality, you didn't die alone. You had two allies, two who actually cared about you. Your fiance, Sunset Shimmer, and your mistress, Alex."

"Why would any version of me marry Shimmer?" I asked. "Or a stallion?"

"What? Oh, I see. Alex… Well, Alex was a mare, trust me." said War. "Alex the Great, Princess of Darkness and Lord Sombra's favorite servant."

"Lord Sombra? Hm… I like that. It's quite becoming."

"Anyway, Shimmer died trying to win back your heart, and Alex died trying to avenge your death. They are the only creatures to ever care for you, and they lost one of the few people they care for."

"You still have not explained my relevance to these mares." I cut in. He was wasting my time. War raised his hand and pointed a single finger at my chest. I dropped to my knees in unbearable agony, the foreign feeling of pain nearly knocking me unconscious.

"Do not interrupt me." said War. "I'm the King of the Spirit world, the land of the dead. As your allies are dead, I have them under my rule. They are going to become my students, and I need your help with a lesson." He tossed me a purple stone about the size of a baseball, the rock falling into my hand without me even trying to catch it.

"What… is this?" I said through gritted teeth.

"Your soul." said War. "Or what's left of it. I'm going to bring my students here, and they are going to try and get that stone from you. If you let them, this reality will be erased and the Sombra from my reality will be reborn in the Spirit World as a victim of eternal torture."

"Why give it to me, then?"

"I want Shimmer and Alex to figure something out, and then hopefully get out of my mane. You're just the man to teach them what they need to know."

"But, why not just teach them yourself?" I asked.

"I have to give you something to do. Otherwise, you're a loose end." said War, fading away into nothing. "I hate loose ends."

I rose to my hooves, the stone still in my hand. It gave off a strange whispering, as if trying to get inside of my head. I looked at it, unaware as what to do next. I was feeling something I hadn't felt in many millenia.

"I'm… afraid." I said. "This is fear? It's… awful." War never told me how long it would be before he arrived with his students, and the lack of knowledge was as unpleasant as it was unfamiliar. My horn began to glow red, and my magic went wild through the building, yanking in all of the surrounding power. I'd need it for my new army. The army of Lord Sombra, King of Shadows.

"I appreciate the name, War." I grumbled, my soldiers being created before my eyes. "I appreciate the warning even more."

* * *

**Author's Note: The end of another story. I technically lied at the beginning of this story, saying that this would have nothing to do with the main series. It will have nothing to do with the main series **_**before**_ **they defeat Sombra. This, as you can see, is leading up to a new story with Alex and Sunset Shimmer. But, thank you for reading! Please, review if you liked or have tips on how to better myself. I appreciate you taking time out of your day to read something some guy wrote for the internet. Farewell!**


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